Shattered Perfection
by josabbimommy
Summary: Bella has everything. Perfect husband, perfect kids, perfect life. Until one day, her world changes, and the perfection she thought she had is shattered. Will she be able to pull her life together and survive on her own? AU, AH, Rated M for eventual lemon
1. Strawberry Wine

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. I don't own "Strawberry Wine" (though I do make my own!) Enjoy!**

'Shattered Perfection'

Epilogue: Strawberry Wine

He was working through college on my grandpa's farm  
I was thirsting for for knowledge and he had a car  
I was caught somewhere between a woman and a child  
When one restless summer we found love growing wild  
On the banks of the river on a well beaten path  
Funny how those memories they last

Like strawberry wine and seventeen  
The hot July moon saw everything  
My first taste of love oh bittersweet  
Green on the vine  
Like strawberry wine

I still remember when thirty was old  
My biggest fear was September when he had to go  
A few cards and letters and one long distance call  
We drifted away like the leaves in the fall  
But year after year I come back to this place  
Just to remember the taste

'Strawberry Wine' by Deana Carter

Summer 1996

Isabella POV

"Promise me that you'll call?" I said staring into his emerald green eyes.

"I will," he said, staring back into my chocolate brown eyes. I kissed him again, not wanting this moment, or the summer to pass. "I have to go Bells. I'm gonna miss the bus."

I watched as he turned around, picked up his suitcase, and handed it to the coachmen, then got onto the bus. The man of my dreams was getting on a bus, leaving for boot camp, going into the US Marine Corps. I didn't want him to go but I understood his pull to the military. He wanted to serve his country, after which he'd go to college. His plan was to use the GI Bill to go to college, after which he'd join a law firm and become a successful lawyer. I watched as he took a seat near the window, he blew me a kiss and I watched as he drove away. I missed him already.

Edward and I had been camp counselors together. We'd spent the entire summer getting to know each other, and slowly falling in love. A week ago we had consummated our relationship, after a summer of taunting and teasing. It was everything that I had imagined it would be like. We'd found a tent, some cozy blankets and spent the night learning how to love each other. It was pure and utter bliss, and I would miss it.

"Bells," Alice shook me from my memories, "we need to leave. We're gonna be late for the first day of our senior year."

Thirteen Years Later

September 2009

Isabella POV

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. There was an annoying noise intruding on my dreams. I wasn't quite ready to get up and though I knew that I had a ton to do today, I really wanted to stay in bed just a few minutes longer.

"Bella." I squished my eyes closed harder, hoping my husband would leave me alone and let me sleep just a few minutes longer.

"Bella," I hear him say again. I pull my hand out from under my pillow and slap the offending noise maker on my night stand.

"I'm up," I say, wiping my eyes of the crusties. I swing my legs out of our king size bed and pull on my bathrobe, tying the sash tight around my waist. After all these years, I was still thin, but had filled out in 'all the right places' during my three pregnancies. I slipped my feet into my slippers and went into the bathroom, brushing my teeth quickly I finish in the bathroom and walk downstairs, putting a pot of coffee on while I go about making some breakfast for my husband, Mike.

I grab the eggs and bacon out of the frig and put a skillet on the stove. I put the bacon on and start whipping up the eggs, mixing in cheese, the way my husband prefers. After dropping the mixture into the skillet I open the bacon and start to cook that. While the bacon cooks I grab a coffee cup from the cupboard and prepare Mike's coffee. I watch as he walks into the kitchen, his hair still wet from his morning shower, dressed in a gray suit with a blue tie. I hand him his coffee and watch as he sits down, waiting to be served his breakfast. I run outside to retrieve the morning paper, coming back in and handing it to him. I turn his eggs onto a plate and give him some bacon and then place the plate in front of him. I watch as he silently eats, alternating between eggs, bacon and coffee while reading the morning paper. I open the refrigerator and start getting items together for lunch for my two eldest children.

"Bella," I hear my husband say, and I turn around to look at him. "More coffee?" He says, handing me his coffee cup. I turn back around and fill his cup up, handing it back to him and completing my children's lunches.

"I'll be home late tonight," he says. I watch as he gathers his things together and walks out the front door, bleeping his Mercedes open as he goes.

"Bye dear," I wave to him as he leaves and watch him drive away. After my husband's car leaves the subdivision that we live in, I turn around, close the door and walk up the stairs to my children's room. I wake up my oldest child, Joseph, and wait for him to actually role out of the bed before going to my daughter's room. My middle child, Abbigail is sound asleep and in true Abbi style is laying half-on, half-off the bed, partially covered with a blanket, clutching her stuffed kitty. Her blonde hair is all over the place. I stand at the door a few minutes and watch my only daughter sleep. Eventually, I wake her up and help her get her clothes down, making sure that she is styled perfectly for school. Finally, I head to the nursery where my one year old is sound asleep, oblivious to the noise his siblings are making.

"Momma," I can hear my son yelling from his bedroom. I walk into the room to see what the problem is and find him knee deep in t-shirts.

"What's wrong baby?" I ask, looking at him.

"I can't find my undershirt that I need to wear for school." I walk over to his dresser and pull out a plain white t-shirt and hand it to him. "Put this on. Your uniform is in the closet." I walk out of his room and back to my room and start to put my ensemble together for the day.

Several minutes later I emerge from my room, ready to conquer the day. My son is ready and dressed in his school uniform, my daughter is dressed in her favorite outfit, a pink dress and pink high top chucks. I pick the baby up from his bed and walk down the stairs as my two oldest children follow behind me.

"Grab your lunches," I say, walking out the door to my garage and putting my son in his car seat. "Come one kids, we're going to be late," I watch as they get in there seats.

On my way back from dropping the kids off at school, I start my weekly errands. I pull into the Whole Foods parking lot, grab my son from the back and head into the grocery store. And hour and a half later I'm at the cash register, ready to pay and head onto my next destination.

"Ma'am," the cashier says to me, "do you have another card?" She hands my debit card back to me and I'm just staring at her with my mouth open. Stunned.

"Try it again. I know there's money in there. My husband is a doctor," I hand her my debit back, knowing there is some sort of problem. She runs it through the machine a second time, waiting for it to beep. Again, it's declined. I watch as she runs it a third time. Again, declined. I'm not sure what the problem is, as I know that there is plenty of money in the bank. "Do you have another card?" I dig into my Louis Vuitton handbag and extract the matching wallet, pulling out my American Express card..

"Here," I say, handing it to the women.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, that's been declined as well."

"Excuse me?" I ask looking at her in surprise. There's no way it was declined. It didn't have a limit. That meant only one thing. Mike, for some reason, had canceled my credit cards.

I extract my son from the cart, go to my car, put my son in his car seat and call my husband. Boy did he have some explaining to do.


	2. Alice's Surprise

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

Shattered Perfection: Chapter Two: Surprise

September 2010

BPOV

It had been 365 days since Mike left. The bastard decided that he didn't want to have a wife and family anymore. He didn't want to live in Virginia. He didn't want to see his kids. He didn't want to support his family anymore. He had left. Cancelled our credit cards, took all the money out of the bank and had flown to California to meet someone he'd met in a "Married but Looking" chat room.

What an asshole.

My life changed immensely that day after I realized what had happened. I realized immediately that I would have to get a job. After all, someone had to support the kids and Mike made it abundantly clear that it wasn't going to be him, at least not willingly. I had gone back to teaching. I had never been happier that instead of marrying Mike and dropping out of school like he wanted, I had stayed in school and completed my education. I had to get a Virginia teaching license, but it wasn't that hard to do. I was lucky that I hadn't been out of it that long. I was also able to find a job at my son's school, so he didn't have to change schools, and I didn't have to pay for the private school tuition, which was a plus.

The only thing that had stayed the same was the house that we lived in. I was lucky in that, through hard work and making extra payments, our house had been paid off the year before, so I didn't have to worry about the mortgage. That was the only thing that saved me in the early days, the fact that I didn't have a $1400 mortgage payment anymore.

My son had changed since _**he**_ left. He never referred to him as dad anymore, he just called him _**he**_. Joseph was aware of what he had done and was very angry with him for it. He had seen me in the early days, when I moped around the house, eating nothing but ice cream and Dr Pepper, before I realized that I needed to get my ass in gear and get my life together. He had seen me cry many times and he knew why I was crying.

My daughter wasn't sure what was going on, and since she was a daddy's girl, she wasn't so quick to hate Mike. She still held hope that 'Daddy', as she called him, would be coming back. She was convinced that he had went to California to be a doctor at Disney Land. I'm not sure where she came up with that idea, but she talked about it repeatedly.

My youngest didn't notice that Mike was gone. He was too young to know that his father had abandoned him.

It had been a long year, but it was starting to get better. I had money in the bank, food on the table and my children were clothed, healthy and relatively happy.

"Hello," I say, answering the phone sitting next to me, pulling me from my daydream.

"What'cha doing?" the voice on the other end says.

"Daydreaming," I say.

"'Bout what?" Alice, my best friend in the whole world, asks.

"Nothing really. Just thinking about how far I've come in a year," I say into the mouthpiece.

"I have a surprise for you," she says, her voice gradually raising an octave or two.

"What?" I ask, scared to know what she could possibly have for me.

"It's a surprise. What are you doing for dinner tonight?"

"I promised Joseph lasagna," I looked over at the ingredients for the homemade lasagna sitting on my countertop and knew that I should get working on that if I wanted to get it done in time for dinner.

"Can Jazz and I come over for dinner?" Alice loved my lasagna, almost as much as my son.

"Sure," I say. "Are you bringing my surprise with you?"

"Yes," Alice says, giggling a little bit.

"OK. Well I'll see you then." I hung the phone up, guessing that my surprise was probably a new bottle of wine that Alice had found. She was always doing stuff like that. I put the phone down and worked on the lasagna for the evening.

Three hours later the lasagna was done and the carpool had dropped my two oldest children off after soccer practice.

"Go wash up for dinner, Aunt Alice and Uncle Jasper will be here soon," Alice wasn't really my sister but we were both only children and she was the closest thing that I had to a sibling while growing up. We even referred to each other as sister while growing up and my parents considered her their daughter. I also called Alice's parents 'Mom' and 'Dad'.

Alice and Jasper had met our freshmen year in college and had inseparable ever since. They had been married for almost ten years and had recently decided to try to have children. I knew that Alice and Jasper would be great parents, they were great with my kids.

Alice was a teacher, and before I stopped teaching to raise my children, (before the Asshole decided to abandon his family) Alice and I taught together. Jasper worked for the federal government and had some sort of top secret security clearance. I didn't really know what he did for a living, and I preferred to keep it that way.

I walked upstairs to change my youngest child out of play clothes and into clothes for dinner when I heard the door bell ring.

My door was unlocked and I knew that Alice would let herself in and make herself at home. She always did. I heard my children squeal as I assumed they ran to Alice to give her a hug. They loved their Aunt Alice. I finished dressing the baby and took him downstairs, anxious to see Alice and Jasper, and find out what my surprise was.

As my son and I walked down the stairs I heard a familiar voice, one I hadn't heard in a very long time. I thought for a second that maybe Jasper had a cold, because I knew that there was no way that deep, velvety voice belonged to a man I used to know. A man I'd once been in love with, who broke my heart more than Mike ever could.

I came around the corner and was face to face with Edward Cullen. The first man I'd given my heart to. The first man I'd given everything to. There was no way in the world he was here, standing in my living room. No way at all.

**A/N: **

**Thank you to everyone that has put me on alert and has reviewed. If you followed me here from my other story, welcome back. If your a new reader, thanks for finding me. This story WILL NOT be like my other story. It might be a little angsty, but there will be no abuse or torture. **

**Are you reading these? You should be!  
Frontline by MissAlex**

**www[dot]fanfiction[net]/s/6020448/1/**

**Failure to Thrive by Julesnerd**

**www[dot]fanfiction[net]/s/5169904/1/**

**Follow me on Twitter for Updates, Sneak peaks and the randon tweeting of a mother of three. **


	3. Welcome Home

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight

Thank you to everyone that has reviewed.. I appreciate each and every one of them!

This chapter takes place two weeks before Chapter 2. In late August, 2010.

Shattered Perfection: Chapter 3: Welcome Home

EPOV

Today was my first day at my new job. I was working for the Department of Defense as a civilian contractor. My military experience had paid off for me, they had offered me a wonderful job with excellent pay and I was stoked to be starting over, my life couldn't get anything but better. I looked down at my left hand and could still see the faint outline of my wedding band. It had been on for so long, the permanent indentation and tan line that it had made in my finger was pretty evident. I was hoping that eventually it would go away. After all, I was here to start my life over again, away from everyone that I've ever known, away from my parents, my ex, everyone.

I had been in Charlottesville, VA for less than a week. I had found an apartment, moved in and bought a new car. It was my first new car since graduating from high school. I bought it off the lot with 10 miles on it. I was looking forward to exploring the new area that I had relocated to in my brand new car.

I spent the day getting oriented to my new work place. I got my ID done and was briefed as to what my position entailed. I had been out of the military for a little over three months, my short hair finally starting to grow out into something a little more civilian looking. I had an office mate, who I hadn't met yet, but he appeared to be an ex-Army man as he had several Army pennants and posters hanging up on his side of the wall. I also saw a picture of him (I assumed it was him, or if he was older, it was a son) standing next to a woman that looked vaguely familiar. I was trying to figure out why someone would look familiar to me in a place I had never been when the blonde in the photo walked into the office.

"You must be Edward," the tall blonde man said. "Jasper Whitlock," he held out his hand to me and I grab it and shook.

"Edward Cullen," I said, dropping my arm to my side.

"That's my wife," he said, nodding towards the picture, "Alice."

"I'm trying to figure out why she looks familiar to me," I say, turning back to look at the photo.

"Ever been to Forks, Washington?" he asked, looking at me. For a minute I thought that he was joking.

"Yes," I say, looking back at him. Maybe I was being punk'd.

"Really?" He asks. "I was just kidding. No one has ever heard of that place."

"I'm from there," I say, looking at him. "What's your wife's name?"

"Alice," Jasper says, "Brandon."

"Your wife is Alice Brandon?" I ask, stunned. I knew her, I knew her well.

"Yes, do you know her?"

"Yes, we were camp counselors together. God, that's been forever. I haven't thought about her in a while. Is she still friends with Bella?"

"You know Bells?" Jasper asks, looking at me, and then smiling.

"Yes. So Alice still keeps in touch with her?"

"Um, yeah. Bells is the reason Alice is here. The reason we met. Alice followed Bella here, after college. She'd never been to the East Coast before and followed Bells and Mike here."

"Mike," I ask. I wonder if that meant Bella was married?

"Bella's husband, er, rather, ex-husband. He left about a year ago."

"He left her?" I couldn't imagine anyone leaving Bella. When she broke up with me, all those years ago, I was devastated, the rebound that happened after that had led me to marrying the she-demon. It took me a long time to get rid of her, and I was upset to find out that someone had done that to Bella.

"Yup. Cancelled all her credit cards, took all the money out of the account and went to California. Met someone online. She was devastated."

"Kids?" I ask, hoping the answer is no, and that he didn't abandon his wife and his children.

"Yeah, three." I was fuming. I couldn't believe that someone would do that to Bella. She had always been intelligent and focused and loved easily. Hearing that someone had married, had three kids with her and then left her, I felt the urge to get my handgun and shoot him. I hadn't seen Bella in a long time, but I knew that there was no way she deserved something like that.

"So what does she do?" I asked. How amazing it was that Bella—the girl I'd loved for so long—who broke up with me with no explanation whatsoever—was in the same town that I was—and was single.


	4. Not Everything has a Happy Ending

Thank you to everyone that has reviewed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

Shattered Perfection

Chapter 4: Not Everything has a Happy Ending

**October 1996**

Edward had kept his promise. He wrote me letters diligently every other week from boot camp. I had just picked another letter up out of the mailbox from him. I couldn't wait until Christmas break, when he would be coming home and I would be able to see him. I missed him so much. The letters made it a little better, but not quite.

"My dearest Bella," I read.

"Boot camp is hard. It is more physically intensive than I thought that it would be. I miss you so very much and can't wait to see you. My parents are coming to watch me graduate from Boot camp in a few weeks, maybe you can come with them?

I love you and I miss you.

Edward."

They continued like that, week after week, until finally he was done and he got sent to North Carolina to do some more training. He was living in the barracks and had a roommate. He had told me numerous times that he didn't particularly like his roommate, that he was a total douche, but he wasn't allowed to switch them out.

After one particularly hard day at school, I decided to go home and call Edward. Even though it was almost seven o'clock I knew that he'd probably be in his room, reading a book or doing something else. The phone rang about ten times before it was finally answered.

"Hello," It was a female. A voice I didn't recognize.

"Is Edward there?" I ask the female.

"I don't know. Hold on," I heard as the phone was pushed up against something, a crackling sound echoing through the headset. "Are you here?" I heard her ask.

"He says he's not here." And that when I realized who the person on the other end of the phone was. It was the women that Edward had replaced me with. His new girlfriend. I hung up the phone before I could hear anything else. I couldn't stand to listen to the bubbly voice, the laugh.

I went to my room and stood there for what seemed like forever.

I didn't open another letter from him again. I didn't answer the phone when he called. I decided to visit my grandmother in Arizona during the holidays so that I didn't have to see him when he came home to visit his family. I decided to accept a position in a foreign exchange program in France and spent the rest of the year in France, coming home to graduate. After graduation, I went back to Arizona to visit my grandmother again, before going off to college.

Soon, Edward became a distant thought and I got on with my life. I met Mike and fell in love. We graduated. We got married. We had children.

**Present Day**

**September 2010**

"What are you doing in my house?" I ask, stunned to see the tall, bronze haired man standing in front of me.

"Alice invited me," he said. Looking at me. I couldn't look at him. I knew that if I looked at him, looked into those green eyes after all these years, I would forgive him. He was unforgivable. And I needed to make sure that he knew that.

"Get out of my house, right now!" I yelled. "Your not welcome here."

"Bells," I heard Alice say, walking over to me. "What's the deal? I thought you'd be thrilled!"

"Thrilled?" My voice was getting louder by the minute. I knew that I needed to get my temper under control, so not to scare my children, who were watching the whole ordeal, but I was so mad that Alice had done this. "Get him out of here. NOW." I watched as Edward and Jasper walked out the door. Presumably, heading to the door.

"Bells, tell me what the problem is? Why are you so mad at him?"

"Why am I so mad? Why am I so mad Alice?" I was about a inch from her face, yelling. I knew I needed to back up. I knew I needed to stop yelling but I just couldn't.

"What did he do, Bells?"

"He cheated on me Alice. I called to talk to him one day and a girl answered the phone. Said he didn't want to talk to me. After all the promises that he made to me, all the kisses in the middle of the night, he cheated Alice. He left me. I hate him. And you brought him into my house. You should've told me Alice. Before you just brought him here." I stopped yelling and turned around, heading to my kitchen. I could hear my children in there, hopefully oblivious to everything that I had just said to there 'Auntie Alice'. I heard the door close and the sounds of an engine starting.

Edward Cullen was back and I knew that this would not be the last time I would see him.


	5. Twisted Coincidence

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, but if I did, Edward totally would've been in Marine Corps dress blues at some point. I LOVE a man in uniform.**

**Thank you for all the reviews. I read every single one of them. Enjoy! **

Chapter 5: Twisted Coincidence

October 2010

Bella POV

It had been a long day. The ending to a long week. I was sitting in my kitchen cleaning up after Sunday dinner. My two oldest kids were taking baths and my youngest was in bed, sound asleep.

"Bells," I thought I had heard the door close earlier. That Alice and Jasper had gone home from dinner, but I guess they were still here.

"I sent Jazz home. We drove separate cars. I wanted to talk to you." I knew what this was about. Alice had been hinting about Edward ever since that disastrous evening when she had invited him to dinner. We hadn't spoken about him since and I really wasn't in the mood.

"I'm don't want to talk about it Alice. I've told you that already." I returned to cleaning up the counter top, washing over areas I'd already cleaned. Anything to avoid talking about this.

"He's divorced ya know." I stiffened, knowing no matter what I said or did, we were having this conversation.

"What makes you think I care?" I did care. I'd been trying to deny it for the past couple of weeks, since that evening. But I did care. I couldn't help thinking about what he'd been doing all these years, where he'd been, how much he liked the Marine Corps, if he'd married, had children. But I couldn't let Alice know that, if I told her she'd be relentless in getting us back together, and I knew that if I did that, I'd just get hurt again. And my heart couldn't handle being broken for a third time.

"I know you care Bells. You always cared. I could tell by the way you reacted. You left Bella. You forgot about everyone and you left."

"I left because I couldn't stand to see him again Alice. I knew he was coming back and the last place I wanted to be was there. You act like I never came back. I did. Remember? I'm the one who came back. Not him." I could feel the tears teasing the corners of my eyes. I knew Alice saw it. I knew she could see through the feelings that I was hiding.

"He doesn't have kids." She was continuing on telling me the history of his life. She knew I wanted to know. We'd been friends long enough for her to know that she was getting to me. She'd keep on telling me information until I cracked and started asking questions. That was Alice's MO.

"I'm telling you again Alice. I DON'T CARE."

"If you truly didn't care Bella, you would've stopped cleaning that same area of counter top already. You've been cleaning it for twenty minutes." I stared down at the area she was talking about and could see the shiny patina of the counter top. She was right. I threw the rag in the sink and walked over to the bar area of the kitchen.

"He cheated on me Alice." I sat down on the stool, pouring myself a glass of wine.

"He says he didn't." Alice comes over and sits on the stool. I pour her a glass of wine, knowing that she wants to join me. "And why didn't you ever tell me that? You just said you broke up with him. That you didn't want a long distance relationship?"

"Of course he did. No one is going to admit to cheating. No one. Especially not a man." I took a sip of my wine, savoring the taste going over my tongue and down my throat. "And I didn't tell you because I was ashamed of letting myself be fooled by him. Him and his emerald eyes and bronze hair."

"He says it was his roommate's girlfriend. That it was all a joke. That he never got to explain it to you because you wouldn't talk to him."

"How long was he married?" I couldn't resist asking the question. I needed to know the answer.

"A while," Alice said, putting her glass to her lips and taking a long drink of the wine.

"How long Alice?"

"Almost fourteen years." I saw her pick her glass up again and swallow the rest of the wine.

"He's been gone fourteen years Alice. That means he met someone almost immediately and got married. It's not a lie. He did cheat."

"Just listen to him. Let him tell you his side of the story. If it doesn't go well, I'll never mention it again and I'll leave both of you alone. If it does go well, I won't say 'I told you so'."

"Your a pain in my ass, you know that?"

"I know," she said, smiling, "but you still love me."

"I do Allycat."

"I love you to Bellybean." She gave me a hug. She knew what I was agreeing to. How hard it was for me to see him. But I would give Alice the benefit of her doubt.

*******************************SP************************************************

I liked teaching. I liked seeing children's faces light up when they finally 'got it'. When the problem they'd been working on finally came together, when the concept clicked. It was a great feeling knowing that I was doing that. Because of my schedule, and the school that I worked in, I was lucky enough to have two hours worth of free time in the afternoon. I usually ate lunch and then went to the Atlantic Coast Athletic Club, or ACAC, down the street to work out. It was the only time that I was able to be alone, and think about everything that was going on in my life and the world. It also gave me the opportunity to catch up on my leisure reading.

I left school quickly and got into my car, making the ten minute drive to the athletic club. I went into the locker room and changed into some yoga pants and a white wife beater. I put my running shoes on and grabbed my iPod from my purse. Locking my things up I put the ear buds into my ears and headed to the closest treadmill.

I climbed on the treadmill, put my feet on either side, programmed what I wanted to do, and pushed the start button. I put my feet to the rubber mat and started to run, pushing the play button on my iPod. I had been running for twenty minutes when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Someone was getting on the treadmill next to me. I was used to people being there with me, after all, exercising during lunch was a pretty popular time with the business crowd, but I wasn't used to the scent that accompanied this person. I recognized that scent from a long time ago. It was the scent of Edward Cullen.

Edward Cullen was at my gym. He was running next to me. I was going to have to kill Alice. Because out of all the gyms in Charlottesville, Edward walked into mine. Yeah, right. Somebody was getting there butt kicked.

********************************SP***********************************************

Edward POV

"Good morning Jasper." I said to my office mate, walking through the door with Starbucks in one hand and my briefcase in the other.

"Morning, Edward." Jasper looked up for a brief second to acknowledge me, before looking back down at the papers on his desk.

"How was your weekend?" I asked.

"Good, kinda boring. Did some house stuff on Saturday, went to a soccer game, and then to Bellas-" he paused momentarily, not quite sure if he should continue. He'd been avoiding talking about her since the night she told me to get out of her house.

"You can talk about her Jasper." I took a sip of my Starbucks, wanting the coffee to scald my tongue.

"We went to Bella's house for dinner on Sunday. We normally do." I heard him clear his throat and shuffle the papers on his desk.

"How was your weekend?" He asked. I knew he was trying to change the subject, and I was OK with it.

"Good. Drove around a bit getting acclimated to town. Finding a dry cleaner, a grocer, etc. Still working on finding a gym though."

"We get a discount at ACAC, it's kinda a hike from here, but depending on where you live, it might be close."

"I saw a sign for that. I think I live pretty close to it. I'll have to look into it. Maybe I'll go this afternoon during lunch. See what they have."

"That's a good thought." I thought I saw a smile ghost across his lips, but it was gone to quickly for me to be sure.

Four hours later, I was headed down Rt. 29, in search of the gym that Jasper had told me about. I had workout clothes in my car. I put them in the car hoping that Jasper would lead me in the direction of a gym, and he had. I finally found what I was looking for and pulled into the parking lot, parking next my little sports car next to a BMW SUV. I chuckled a little when I saw the license plate read '3RTNKDS' and clicked my key fob to lock my car. I walked in, with my gym bag in tow, and after spending a while at the registration desk, changed out of my suit and into some running shorts, a USMC t-shirt and sneakers.

I walked into the large room that housed the treadmills and spied one that I was familiar with. I walked over to it and after programming it, started to run on the rubber track. The consistent 'thump, thump' of my feet lulled me into a daze and I was completely clueless to the brown haired beauty standing next to me. I didn't see her get off the treadmill and walk quickly into the locker room and I didn't see her a few minutes later as she emerged from the club and got into a BMW SUV with novelty plates.

**A/N: Novelty plates are huge in Virginia. I have one, though the one mentioned is not mine, but it does belong to a friend of mine. Virginia also has the largest selection of specialty plates in the country, with about 140 choices. Deciding which one you want can be really hard. I hope that you've enjoyed this latest installment. It will probably be about two weeks before I am able to post again. I was delayed with writing this chapter by all the fab authors that updated this weekend. TWoW, Scarlet and Fuggiasco have me sucked in completely. If your not reading them, you should be. **


	6. Once Upon a Broken Heart

**A/N: I'm sorry for the delay in updating. My grandmother died unexpectedly and the last month has been very bad for my family and I. From now on, I will try to make the updates every two weeks. **

**I hope that you are enjoying this story.**

**Thank you to all the reviewers. I read them all.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight...I am however married to a handsome man in uniform. Yum.**

Shattered Perfection

Chapter 6: Once Upon a Broken Heart

Once upon a broken heart  
I was walking alone in the dark  
Looking for a way to start again  
What I wouldn't give for a friend  
There was no love in my life  
There was no light in my eyes  
All the tears that I had cried and cried  
Seemed like they'd never end

"Once Upon A Broken Heart" by The Beu Sisters

November 2010

It had been a month. A month since I'd agreed to go out on a date with Edward. Alice had begged endlessly. She was convinced that once we got back 'together', my life could be complete. I wasn't so convinced, but couldn't tolerate listening to her anymore, so I finally gave in and said yes.

Edward and I had met for drinks after work one day, with the intention of going on a 'real' date later in the week, but had postponed the date several times—for one reason or another—and was finally getting around to actually going.

That's how I found myself standing in front of the mirror in my bra and panties. While staring at myself I was glad that I had kept myself in shape all these years, and that the four pregnancies that I had endured had not altered my body too much. I had no stretch marks—something that while I was pregnant I had worked diligently at to not get. I was also that I was still pretty light—having lost a majority of the weight that I had gained.

"Is that what you plan on wearing?" Alice asks as she walks into the room.

"No. I'm sure I'd get in trouble if I wore this out of the house." I turn around to look at Alice, knowing that she can give me the advice and help that I need in planning my outfit.

"I don't think that he has anything huge planned...probably just dinner."

"OK." I turned back around and started staring at my closet again.

I heard the doorbell and looked at the clock. It read 5:30. He was early. Why was he so early? He wasn't supposed to be here until 6:30.

"I'll go see why he's so early," Alice said, turning around and heading downstairs.

I was still staring at my collection of clothes when I heard a voice behind me that I wasn't expecting.

Mike.

"You look great Bells," the voice sent chills down my spine.

I turned around to look at him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. I fumbled around me for my robe and cinched it around my waist.

"I've come to visit my wife," he looks at me again, I can still see a very faint outline where his wedding band used to be. He's put on a few pounds. I guess he hasn't been working out the way he used to when we were married.

"We're divorced, remember? You left me and kids, for something big and better."

"That was a poor decision on my part. I thought you would've been glad to see me. After all, I've been gone for a year."

"Glad to see you? Really, Mike? You honestly thought that? After you abandoned your wife and children, you honestly thought that I would be happy to see you? Really?"

"Why wouldn't you be? I'll admit that I made a mistake. I can move back in, and everything will be OK. We can go back to how it used to be."

"What happened to California? The dream you were going to live? The new job? The new girlfriend? What happened to all those things you left us for?" I wasn't going to cry. I'd stopped crying over Mike Newton a long time ago. I did however have the overwhelming urge to shoot him.

"I told you, it was a mistake. People make mistakes Bella." He looked at me again, with big brown puppy dog eyes, the eyes that I had once loved. And I felt—nothing.

"Yes, Mike people do make mistakes. They put a white shirt in with dark clothes and ruin it. They overindulge in Girl Scout cookies and gain a few pounds. They don't leave there wife and children and jaunt off to California without a care in the world. That's not a mistake Mike. That was something that was planned, calculated. You canceled our credit cards. You cleared out the bank account. You packed all your clothes. That wasn't a mistake." I turned around, staring at the clothes in my closet again.

"Bells-" I felt his hand on my shoulder. The same hand that used to hold his wedding band.

"Get your hand off me, Mike." I moved away from him. Not wanting to feel the heat that was emanating from his hand.

"Bells. I've realized my mistake. I love you. I'm ready to come back to you and the kids. I want to move back in. Have a family again." Again, he placed his hand on my shoulder and grabbed it, trying to yank me towards him.

"I told you to get off me." I pulled away from him again. I had to get away from him. Every word he said just made me more upset. I couldn't have a conversation in here, standing in the room we used to share wearing a robe. I needed to be in a more controlled environment, some place less personal.

"Bella, just let me explain." Again, he came near me. I felt both of his hands clamp down on my shoulders and he swung me around.

"I believe she said to get your hands off her," I knew that velvet voice coming from behind me.

"Who are you?" Mike said, his head rising to meet Edward's gaze.

"Does it matter?" Edward asks. I still can't see him. He's behind me, but I can see him. I know that he's coming towards me.

"Yes." He continues to press into my shoulders, to the point where the pressure is starting to hurt and I know that there is going to be a bruise if he does it for much longer.

"No, it doesn't. She asked you to take your hands off her. Please don't make me remove them for you." I could tell that Edward was trying to control his anger. He was taking deep, steady breaths. The same thing I did to calm myself down.

"You must be her new boy toy. I'm her husband. So if you don't mind, you can leave us alone." Finally I saw Edward come into view. He didn't look happy at all.

"I"m only going to ask you this one last time. Remove your hands please."

"Leave us alone," Mike said again, the pressure on my shoulder getting worse. I was frozen. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't move. Mike had his hands clamped so hard on my shoulders that I was frozen under his touch. I wanted to kick him but knew that I'd be taken down him if I did that. "I just need to talk to her."

Before I knew what happened, the pressure on my shoulders had gone away and Mike was on the ground, rolling around on the floor in pain.

"I told you to get your hands off her." Edward's face was red with anger. His voice was steely and cold and I knew he was trying to control his emotions.

"Bella. Go downstairs. NOW."

I turned around and ran down the stairs, not wanting to be around for what was going to happen.

Edward POV

"I told you to get your hands off her." I was seeing red. I had walked in on something I never wanted to see. Bella being hurt by a man. Not just any man, but a man that had once allegedly loved her. I had punched him, hard in the stomach. I needed to get myself under control. I knew that if I lost control, I would kill him. I had the training to do it, but wouldn't.

"Bella. Go downstairs. NOW." I watched as she ran down stairs. Her hair askew, her tie from her robe loosened enough that I could see black lace peeking through the top of her robe.

"Now listen to me." I grabbed Mike by the chin and turned his face to look at mine. "She doesn't want to see you again. She doesn't want you back. You've already hurt her once. If I hear that you do it again, I will hurt you. You will be messed up so badly your mother won't be able to identify you. Leave her alone. Do not come back to this house." I watched as his eyes dilated and then relaxed. He calmed down enough to get up and run down the stairs.

I stood there for a few minutes after Mike left. I needed to talk to Bella. Now that I saw this—I wondered if there marriage had been like that. If he had hurt her. When we'd gone out for drinks she didn't mention it, but then why would she? We weren't serious (yet, although I hoped we'd get there eventually) and I really hadn't earned her trust back enough for her to tell me a whole lot.

After calming myself down enough, I walked downstairs to check on Bella. I found her and Alice standing in the kitchen, Alice putting ice to Bella's shoulders.

"Are you OK?" I asked, walking over to her.

"Yes," she looked down at the floor. I knew she was lying. I'd had enough training to know when someone was lying. And she was.

"Don't lie to me Bella." I could see that her eyes were lined in red. She'd been crying.

"Why don't you leave Edward. I don't think she's in the mood to go out. I'll have her call you."

I stood there for a minute longer, watching as Alice comforted Bella. I felt useless. Now that the immediate threat was over, I didn't know what to do. I'd never dealt with this type of situation before and didn't know where it should go from here.

I turned around to walk out of the kitchen, bound to take myself home and go a few rounds on the Wii when her voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Stay."


	7. The Dance

**A/N: Twilight isn't mine...but in _my_ version he'd be inked and in uniform. Yum. **

**Thank for all the review and speculation...this will probably answer a few questions...and raise a few more.**

**Enjoy!**

Shattered Perfection

Chapter Seven: The Dance

Life's a Dance you learn as you go

Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow

Don't worry about what you don't know

Life's a Dance you learn as you go.

"Life's A Dance"

John Michael Montgomery

lear

Bella POV

"Stay."

"I'm going to put some clothes on. Why don't you order us something to eat," I turned out of the room and walked upstairs. I needed to get some clothes on and clean my face up before I could go back downstairs and face them. I hurriedly put some clothes on, jeans and a cardigan. I cleaned my face up and brushed my hair. I knew any plans I had of going out tonight were shot—but since the kids were at the sitters I could at least spend some time with Alice and Edward.

"You OK?" I swear that Edward had a stealth mode. I didn't hear him come into the room, and didn't realize I wasn't alone until he spoke.

"No. But I will be." I put my hair brush down on my dresser and found some shoes to slip my feet in to.

"Has he done this before?" Edward was looking at me, his eyes were pleading for the truth.

"He's never touched me before. Like that."

"But he's hurt you," Edward was still staring at me. I knew that he could tell I was lying. Though I wasn't sure how.

"Our marriage was unique." I said, still not elaborating.

"Unique? That's an interesting way of putting that. What do you mean?"

"I didn't work when I was married. Because of that, Mike expected a lot from me. I don't want to talk about this now. Can't we just eat and hang out?"

"If that's what you want to do, that's fine. Alice ordered Pizza." I walked past him and headed downstairs. I was hungry. I could feel my stomach rumbling and couldn't wait for the pizza to get here."

"So where are the kids?" Alice asked, looking at me expectantly.

"Joe and Abbs are each at a sleepover. The baby is at the sitters. He'll be back tonight." I went to the wine refrigerator and pulled out a bottle.

"Want some?" I asked, looking from Alice to Edward.

"Yes," Alice said, eying the bottle in my hand.

"No," Edward said. "Can I just have water?"

Moments later there was a knock on the door, I got up to get it but Edward beat me too it. Insisting that he pay since we were supposed to be on a date.

"Thanks," I said, looking at him.

"Your welcome." He said carrying the box into the kitchen.

We sat at the bar in the kitchen for a few minutes silently chewing our pizza. Alice and I enjoying the wine that went with it while Edward drank his water.

"So," Alice says after polishing off her last piece of pizza and drinking the last of her wine. "What's the deal Edward?" As the words came out of her mouth I almost choked on the last bit of my pizza in my mouth.

"With what Alice?" Edward retorted.

"Everything." Alice says, looking back towards Edward. If Edward thought that Alice was going to back down, he was sadly underestimating the little pixie.

"Define everything."

"Fine. Let's start with the marriage. Tell us about it."

"Edward," I say, looking over at him. He has a smug look on his face. "You don't have to tell us anything. We can just have a nice evening. Go into the living room and watch a movie. Or some TV."

"It's OK Bella. You and Alice both deserve to know, since I altered both of your lives so much." He took a deep breath and I watched as he blew the air out and his hair bounced in the air for a second.

"I was married. I'm now divorced. We have no kids. That's it."

"That was the Cliff Notes version. I want the Readers Digest version," Alice said, staring right back at Edward.

"Her name was Tonya. I met her after a night of binge drinking, pity drinking. I was under the impression that I was in love. I wasn't. We were really only good at one thing—sex. Unfortunately, that doesn't maintain a marriage. Because of my job, I was away frequently. Deployed a lot. It wasn't until I was home for an extended period of time that I realized just how incompatible we were and how unhappy she was. Then one day I came home from work early, I found her in bed with a guy ten years younger than me. Fresh meat right off the bus from Parris Island. I threw her out that day. Filed for divorce the next day. After our divorce was finalized, I had a month left on my contract. I had decided that I didn't want to re-enlist. Tonya had me convinced she'd be happier if I was out. If we could have a family. Kids. After I found her with him, I realized that I had no plans. No wife, no family. I rushed to find a job, and was lucky enough to end up here. The day after out divorced was finalized she asked me for my wedding ring back. She wanted to use it to get married to the boy I caught her cheating with. I threw it into the ocean. That's about it."

"Wow." Alice and I both say. "That sucks."

"Yup. But I'm glad that we ended it before we adopted. It would' be been messy."

"Messy. That's a good word to use. So where is she now?" I asked.

"I don't know. Her and the boy got married a month after our divorce was finalized."

"Bitch."

"So why didn't you guys have kids?" I ask, a little confused. They'd been married a while, I didn't think it was possible to go that long without kids in a marriage.

"Couldn't," he says simply.

"She couldn't?" Alice asked.

"We both couldn't." Edward says, looking down at his shoes. "She had some kind of incompetent cervix. I was injured in Fallujah." He stops it at that and I can tell that he's uncomfortable talking about his inability to father children.

"What about you Alice, how did you end up with Jasper?" Edward asks, looking at Alice.

"Well," Alice says. "Jasper and I met at a football game. Bella and I went to college in Arizona. He played football for Texas A & M. They were playing a game and I met him at a party afterward. We dated a few times and then lost contact. After we graduated, Mike got into med school at UVa and Bella followed him out here. I had moved back home after graduation but missed Bells a lot. So I took a job at the school. Three weeks after moving here, I was in the grocery store when I ran into Jasper. He was in the Army and was stationed in Charlottesville. We kind of picked up where we left off. Pretty soon, we were engaged, and within a year we were married. We've been happy ever since then."

"Yes, the one good decision that Mike made was moving out here. Without it, Jasper and Alice never would've rekindled there relationship." I said, refilling my cup and taking a swig.

"What are your parents doing, Bella?" Edward asks, turning his attention back to me.

"Not much. They still live in Forks. Masen is in high school. Dad's still the Police Chief. Mom decided to go back to school. She teaches Kindergarten at Forks Elementary."

"Who's Masen?" Edward asks, looking at me.

"Her parents Hawaii baby." Alice says, giggling.

"Hush. You know he doesn't like to be called that."

"You have a brother?" I ask. That was one thing that the three of us used to have in common, we were all only children.

"Yes. My parents went to Hawaii for their 20th wedding anniversary...and well Masen was born nine months later. Mom was very surprised."

"I'm sure." Edward says, giggling to himself. "So he's in high school. Do you guys get along?"

"Yes, we do. He's great. He's funny and smart. He has an IQ of 170. He skipped third grade and eighth grade. He's a Sophomore in high school. Too damn smart for his own good. He's looking to go to Yale or Harvard. They've been recruiting him since middle school. Mom and Dad are very proud of him."

"That's cool. He sounds like a cool kid." Edward says, getting up with his glass. Assumedly, to refill it.

"He is. My kids love him. He spent the summer with me. Went back to Washington in August."

"So what else have I missed?" Edward asks, looking at me.

"Not much. Graduated from college. Got married. Had kids. Got divorced. Now we're here."

"What'd you do in the Marine Corps Edward?" Alice asked. She loved hearing 'war stories'. I think that it was one of the things that attracted her to Jasper.

"Anti-terrorism. Special Operations. Not a whole lot I can tell you without a security clearance. I deployed to Fallujah, Afghanistan and Pakistan. When I wasn't deployed, I lived in San Diego, Hawaii, Florida, Italy, Spain. The best part was the travel. The worst part was the gun shot wound."

"You were shot?" Alice and I said simultaneously.

"Yup." Edward said.

"Where?" I asked.

"If you mean 'where' as in 'what part of my body', it was my leg. If you mean 'where' as in 'where in the world were you when you were shot', I can't tell you."

"What part of your leg?" I asked. If I were a cat, I'd be dead.

"Femur. Shot off into my pelvis." Oh. That explained that whole infertility thing...maybe.

"Where are you staying?" I ask.

"Apartment off of Rio Road. It's OK. Not a place I Would've chosen but my job found it for me at a discount. If I'm here long enough I'm going to look into getting a house. So Bella, how do you like teaching?"

"I like it. A lot."

"What happened to being a famous author?" Edward asked. I knew he remembered that. I had talked a lot about it that summer, how I was going to write, get published and live somewhere warm.

"Well. I had to find a job when Mike was in medical school so that we could actually have money. They don't pay med students at all and they don't pay intern or residents very well." I remembered, in the early days of my marriage to Mike how much I just wanted to sit down and write. But I was so busy working five days a week, tutoring students and coaching that I just never got around to it.

"So," Alice says, looking from Edward to me and then back to Edward.

"So," Edward says, looking back at Alice.

"Did you cheat Edward?" I watched as Edward took a sip of his water the same time the questions fell from her lips. Water shot out his mouth and nose and he choked a little.

"No you didn't," I say, looking from Alice to Edward. I could not believe that she had just said that. Leave it to Alice to just blurt stuff out.

"No." Edward doesn't seem to want to elaborate, but I know that Alice will not give up. She is persistent, obviously Edward just doesn't realize how persistent.

"Edward, you need to do better than that. No, is not an acceptable answer. I want an explanation and Bella deserves one." I watch as Edward chews on the side of his cheek. I'm not sure if he's deciding if he wants to answer, or if he's formulating a way to divert Alice.

"Only if Bella answers a question for me." This I wasn't expecting. I looked at him, took another sip of my wine, and answered.

"You first."

"No. I didn't cheat. The women who answered the phone was my roommate girlfriend. She thought that it would be funny to tell you that. I wasn't even in the room at the time and had no clue that it happened until she admitted it to me years later. If I had known she did that, I would've called you immediately, or even attempted to fly home. I never wanted to lose you Bella."

"What do you mean she told you years later?" I asked. Now I really was curious.

"It was Tonya who answered the phone."

"Tonya, your ex-wife, Tonya?" I asked.

"Yeah. About two weeks after I realized you had truly broken up with me, I went on a drinking binge. Drank from the time I got off on Friday until Sunday morning. Woke up Monday morning with a killer headache and a gold band on my hand. Tonya had seduced me into thinking that by marrying her, everything would be better and I wouldn't think about you anymore. Which was a lie. I thought about you constantly while we were married. I carried your picture in my wallet for years. Every time I came home on leave to visit my parents, I tried to come visit. Your parents always told me that you were gone-"

"I was," I interrupted. "I moved to France to be a foreign exchange student. After graduating, I went straight to Arizona to be with my grandma and then to college. I haven't been back since. Mike and I got married in Arizona, then moved to Virginia. My parents never told met hat you came to visit. But then they wouldn't. They were the only ones who saw how completely devastated I was. They were probably just trying to protect me."

"Your father almost shot me the first time," I could see a little smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. That sounded like my father, he had a tendency to over react. Especially when it came to his little girl. And he owned a few guns.

"Yeah, well...he's always been a little protective." I laughed and took another drink from my glass. I was feeling a little buzz and I knew that if I drank much more I might be in trouble.

"So what's your question?" I ask, looking at him. I missed those eyes. Those beautiful emerald green eyes.

"Why'd you believe Tonya so fast? Why didn't you call me? And most importantly, why didn't you answer the phone when I called?"

"That's three questions." I say, looking at him again. He completely relaxed sitting at my table. His left leg is crossed over his right leg, and his foot is wagging around. He looks hot in his pair of khaki's and button down shirt. I watch as he brings that cup to his lips and notice something underneath the hem of his sleeve.

"Is that a tattoo?" I ask, looking at what I"m sure is bright red ink.

"Your avoiding the question," he says, taking another sip of his water. I watch as his tongue darts out to lick a stray drop off his full, red lips. Yup, the wine is definitely getting to me.

"I am. But now I'm curious. What's under the sleeve Edward?" I get up and walk over to his side of the table and pull at his buttoned shirt sleeve.

"It's a tattoo. An EGA, Eagle, Globe and Anchor, the symbol of the Marine Corps. Hold on," he moves his arm from my hand and grabs at the button the cuff. After unbuttoning it, he pushes his sleeve up to reveal a whole new 'sleeve' of ink. His arm is completely covered, from wrist to shoulder in a gigantic tattoo.

"That's new," I say, looking at the intricate ink covering his arm.

"Not really. I've had it for years," he says, pulling his sleeve back down and buttoning his cuff back up.

"New to me," I say, staring at the now covered flesh.

"Jasper has one too...his is in Latin though," Alice says, taking a final sip of her wine.

"Yeah, he was Special Forces. Most of those guys have the SF crest tattooed somewhere on there body. I have a Force Recon tattoo on my other arm. So Bella, answer the question. Why, after everything I told you, did you honestly think that I would do that to you?"

"I don't know. I thought you had gotten tired of waiting. That you had decided it wasn't worth waiting for. That I wasn't worth waiting for. I had a bad case of low self-esteem. Especially when I heard the voice that answered the phone. It sounded like a sex phone operator and I was convinced that there was no way you would want me when you had someone that sounded like that." It was the truth. I was so overly emotional that day I had assumed the worst. I tried to imagine what my life would've been like if I hadn't called him that day. If I hadn't talked to Tonya, if we never broke up. I"m sure that I wouldn't be in the situation that I was currently in. A single mother to three children at the age of 31. We'd probably still be happily married.

"I never got tired of waiting Bella. Even though I married her, it was because I thought you gave up on us. I never did. I still have all the letters. All the pictures from that summer. All the memories. I loved you for a long time and Tonya knew it. And she threw it in my face on a regular basis. That's another reason we divorced. She knew I could never really love her. Because my heart already belonged to someone else. You." And with that, I watched as Edward stood up, wrapped his arms around me, and gave me the sweetest and at the same time, more passionate kiss I've ever had.


	8. Hot Mess

**A/N: Thank you to everyone that has reviewed and for everyone that is reading. Enjoy.**

**Next update: Before Christmas. **

Shattered Perfection

Chapter Eight: Hot Mess

Hot Mess: When ones thoughts or appearance are in a state of disarray but they maintain an undeniable attractiveness or beauty.

Bella POV

The last thing I remembered was sitting on the couch with Alice and Edward, watching the movie Avatar. The details of the movie were unclear, but I thought that I vaguely remembered being carried upstairs and placed into my bed. My head was pounding. It had been awhile since I had drank that much, and the alcohol combined with the stress of seeing Mike, Edward's confession and 'the kiss', I was hungover. I could hear through the baby monitor the steady breathing of my son, so I knew that he OK. I looked over at the clock and saw that I needed to get up. I had to go pick my other children up at soccer in three hours.

I got out of bed and walked into the en suite bathroom and looked in the mirror.

I was a hot mess.

My makeup was smudged on my face, I was still wearing the same clothes that I had on the night before and my hair looked like a small animal had made a nest in it.

It wasn't pretty.

I hopped into the shower and stood under the hot water for what seemed like forever. It felt so good to wash Mike's hands off me, all the stress from the day before washing off my body. After grabbing a towel for my hair and body I stepped out of the shower and went back into my bedroom. After choosing some clothes to wear and walking down the hallway to check on my son (who was still sleeping), I walked downstairs and stopped.

Edward.

He was still here.

In my house.

Scantily clad on my couch.

Holy Hell.

He was hotter than I remembered.

He was laying on my couch, or more correctly, his torso was on the couch. His long legs were hanging off the couch. He was laying on his back, with just boxer shorts on. His sculpted shoulder blades were covered in ink.

Ink.

He had more ink than I've ever seen on another person in my life.

It was beautiful. I never knew how pretty tattoos could be, until I saw the art that was on Edward's back.

It was beautiful. Blues and greens with brown and gold mixed in. A dragon that was standing on top of what looked like a mountain of stone. Wings fully stretched, in all it's grandeur. I didn't know why he had it there, but I did make a mental note to ask him. Since I was able, I ogled the rest of his body while he was sleeping. His beautiful, long legs lightly sprinkled with hair, and they were muscled impressively.

Wow, what a fine specimen of a man Edward was. He'd always been cute but it seemed like the daily exercise and toned body made him look ten times better. He looked good enough to eat. He was a fine, fine specimen. That was for sure.

I walked into the kitchen and started the coffee maker. I needed caffeine after the night of irresponsibility that I had brought upon myself. My head was throbbing. I headed to the refrigerator and took out eggs, bacon and cheese, hoping that Edward wouldn't want anything other than that. I wasn't really in the mood to make something more complicated, and with the pounding that I had going on in my head, I wasn't sure I'd be able to make anything else.

"What'cha doing?" that smooth velvet asked.

"Holy crap," I said, turning around to find Edward standing in the kitchen, his chest covered and his hair askew. "You scared me half to death."

"Sorry," he said. "Where are your coffee cups?"

"Sit down," I say, turning back towards my stove. "I'll get you some." I grabbed a coffee mug from the cupboard, filled it with coffee and handed it across the bar to Edward.

"Thanks," he said, taking the mug from my hands. His long fingers gently touched mine in the transfer and I felt a small shock of electricity. I'd felt it before. It had happened frequently while Edward and I were dating, but it had been a long, long time since I'd felt it last.

I turned back around to the stove and started to prepare breakfast.

"How do you want your eggs?" I ask, putting the bacon on the griddle.

"Whatever is easiest for you, I'm just grateful I'm not paying for breakfast." I giggled a little under my breath surprised that he couldn't cook.

"So," I say, concentrating on the food in front of me. "what happened to college?" I'd been dying to ask him last night but hadn't.

"I went," he said, looking up at me. "One course at a time. It took me several years but I eventually earned a Bachelors in Political Science from George Washington."

Well, I think to myself. I should've just kept my mouth shut.

"You don't cook?" I ask, changing the subject.

"No," I heard him snicker, "I live off Ramen, Oatmeal, Cheerios and Starbucks. With an occasional Hungry Man thrown in."

"What about Tonya?" I ask, putting the eggs on the griddle and flipping the bacon.

"She was more concerned with spending money and sleeping with every Marine that wasn't deployed."

"More coffee," I ask, turning around with the carafe.

"Yes, thanks," he says, holding his mug out for a refill. "Have plans today?" He asks, putting his mug to his lips and taking a drink.

"Soccer game for my son, soccer practice for my daughter. Park play for Anthony."

"Anthony?" He asks, looking up from his mug.

"The baby," I say, scooping the eggs onto a plate and adding some bacon. "Whose probably up by now." I watched as he dug into the plate of food that I placed in front of him. I scooped some eggs and bacon onto a plate for me and headed up stairs to retrieve Anthony from his crib.

"Momma," Anthony said as I walked into the room. I grabbed him out of his crib and changed him out of his PJ's and Pull-up and dressed him in jeans and a t-shirts with sneakers. A perfect outfit for the day.

"You hungry baby boy?" I asked, picking him up and carrying him down the stairs.

"Yes, Momma." He said, looking up at me, his beautiful brown eyes meeting mine. I walked into the kitchen and placed him in his high chair. I grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and placed some Cheerios in a bowl, along with a cut up banana and placed it in front of him.

"Tanks Momma," he says, digging his chubby fingers into the bowl.

"You named him Anthony?" Edward asks, looking at me.

"No," I said, looking at him. "I named him Edward. My husband decided to call him Anthony, after his middle name. It stuck." I grabbed my plate off the counter and stuffed my mouth full of food before Edward had the opportunity to say anything to me.

"You named your son Edward?" He repeated, just staring at me with an open mouth.

"Yes," I say, stuffing more food in my mouth.

"Why?" He asks, looking at me.

"Well, three days before I had him, Mom called and told me that you had been killed in Afghanistan. I always liked the name Edward. Mike didn't object. He had no idea that I knew someone named Edward. I had never spoken about you to him. He agreed that he liked the name and we named him. A week later, after filling out the paperwork, I found out that you were alive, really injured, but alive. Then Mike decided that he liked his middle name instead and started calling him Anthony."

"So, you named your son, after me?" Edward said, looking at me, then to Anthony, and then back to me.

"Yes, sort of. I named him after someone I thought was dead. Someone who had died an honorable death serving his country." I watched as my son threw his sippy cup on the floor saying 'uh-oh' at the same time. I picked it up and handed it back to him, he threw it on the floor again. Again he said 'uh-oh'. This time I didn't pick it up. I knew this game, if I continued to pick it up and hand it to him, he would continue to throw it down.

"He's cute," Edward says, observing our interaction.

"Yes, he is. But I'm biased." I noticed that Edward was done with the food on his plate, and that his coffee cup was empty.

"Want more?" I asked, looking at him.

"No, I'm stuffed. But thank you. That was great." I collected his plate and mug off the bar and put it in the dishwasher, followed by my own plate.

"Where'd you learn to cook like that?" He asks, rubbing his tummy and looking up at me.

"Food Network," I say, looking back at him. "In the early days of my marriage, Mike complained that I couldn't cook. So I started to watch the Food Network and now I'm totally hooked. I also picked up a few tips along the way."

"Well that was good. I haven't had a home cooked meal in ages." I watch as he picks up Anthony's sippy cup from the floor, not knowing what he is getting himself into.

"Your wife didn't cook?" I ask, cleaning up the kitchen at the same time.

"No. She didn't do much of anything except shop. And sleep around." I saw him rub his left hand, where I still saw a faint tan line representing what I'm sure was a band line. I don't think that he realized he was doing it. I still did it myself, I wasn't used to not having anything there after all the years of wearing a ring.

"I'm sorry," I don't know what else to say. I never claimed to be a domestic goddess but I did strive to give my husband and my children the best household possible, and in my opinion, that meant cooking wholesome, home cooked meals.

"It's OK. It was a part of my life that I"m trying to forget." I watched as he bent down to pick up the sippy cup that my son had dropped on the floor, again.

"He'll continue to throw it down if you keep on picking it up. It's a game that Toddlers play. Trust me, I've played it a few times."

"I don't mind. I like kids." I watched as he continued to play the dropsy game with Anthony. Watching them interact was very cute, and for some reason, very sexy.

"I need to get going," I say, walking into the other room to grab my purse and keys. "I have to go watch a soccer game." I watch as he stands, his strong, lean body showing it's full height, and again the memory of just how hot Edward Cullen is stirs in the back of my head.

"Can I come?" He asks, fiddling with the tray attachment for the high chair.

"If you'd like," I say, my stomach doing a little flip as I speak the words. Did I just invite Edward Cullen to pick my children up from soccer? Was I ready for all the gossipy soccer moms to see me with this man? They all knew the disaster that was my marriage and the last thing that I needed was to be bombarded with question after question about who he was, where we had met, etc. But I wanted him too. For some reason I wanted him to see what it was like with all three of my children, wanted to see how he interacted with them. At the same time, I was scared as to what my children might say when they see me show up with a man, that isn't there father, at a soccer game? My oldest child understood exactly what had happened between Mommy and Daddy. He knew that Daddy had a girlfriend (I hadn't told him, Mike had), but I wasn't sure how he was going to feel about Edward. Not that we were boyfriend and girlfriend but just the mere thought of us showing up together and my son asking all kinds of questions threw me into a tizzy. In addition, I wasn't sure if Mike was going to be there. I knew that he had the soccer schedule, he had come to Joseph's game a few weeks ago, and I wasn't sure how he would react if he saw me there with Edward, especially after what transpired last night.

What to do? I wasn't sure. But I had about five minutes to figure it out.


	9. Close to You

**A/N: Here it is...Bella and Edwards first lemon. Please don't shoot me. I love all my readers and especially my reviewers.**

**I don't own Twilight...but if I did...well never mind...**

**For those of you who have never heard this song, I recommend you listen to it, you can watch it on YouTube. **

Shattered Perfection

Chapter Nine: Close to You

I know it's hard to see me go

To see me standing so close to the door

I know it's hard when I'm far away

But I promise you when I come back

I'll stay

Close to your hands

Close to you legs

Close to the way your body fits on the bed

Close to your hips

Close to your lips

Close to the only one that I can't resist

Close to your laugh

Close to your words

Giving you everything I know you deserve

Close to you baby

Close to your world

Close to you girl

"Close To You"

The Block

New Kids on the Block

August 1996

Bella POV

Edward Cullen and I had known each other a long time. I'd been behind him in school by a year, ever since I could remember. I'd been in love with him for just as long. He'd always seemed like he was unobtainable, someone that a "no one" like me wasn't meant to date. I'd admired him from afar for a while. I found it quite ironic when, eight weeks ago, I found out that he would be a camp counselor, along with myself and my best friend Alice. I never imagined Edward to be the type of person that would do something like that, but now as I stood staring into his eyes, I couldn't imagine him not being the caring and compassionate person that I"d come to love.

We were assigned to work together the first day that we arrived at the camp. Our cabins, mine the girl cabin, and his the boy cabin, were 'cabin buddies', a term the camp had coined so that they didn't have to randomly pair cabins. After spending a lot of time together planning lots of activities for our cabins, we got to know each other and realized that we had a lot in common.

We were both only children.

We both wanted to go to college on the East Coast.

We both had mothers that smothered us.

We had both only ever dated one other person.

We both had best friends that were like siblings to us, and we both hated rain.

Oh yeah. We were both virgins.

The first weekend that we had free from the camp we spent with each other, not in the 'biblical' sense of each other, just 'together'. We laughed, hugged, kissed and eventually fondled. After that weekend, we found ourselves sneaking out of our cabins at night, to spend 'alone' time with each other. We realized pretty quickly that we couldn't be a couple in front of our campers, because they thought it was 'cute' and they started singing annoying songs about kissing and baby carriages.

Ew.

So every other night, we snuck out of cabins three and six and met in a meadow right on the outskirts of the camp. Edward brought the blanket and I brought my boom box complete with romantic music. I also made an effort to get extra drinks and snacks during the day so that we could munch while we talked.

And boy did we talk.

We talked about everything. School. Family. The future. All our crazy plans.

We talked about how many children we wanted, where we wanted to live, the life that we would like together.

My dream to be a famous author. Edward's desire to be a trial lawyer. It was during one of these conversations that he let it slip that he was joining the Marine Corps.

"Your doing what?" I asked, my voice raising a few octaves.

"I'm joining the Marine Corps," he said. He was holding me. He had his arms wrapped around me, I was laying against his chest, on the blanket. I loved being in his arms.

"Why?" I asked pulling myself away from his embrace.

"Because I want to," he says, trying to pull me back.

"But, what about college? What about being a lawyer?"

"I'll go after the Corps," he succeeds in reaching me and I lay back into the comfort of his embrace.

"But, why?" I didn't understand why he would want to run off and go into the military, and possibly to war.

"Because it's what Cullen men do."

"Can't you go after college? Wouldn't it be better if you went afterwards? My father always said he regretted going in right after high school. That if he could've changed the way he did things, he would've gone to college and then into the military."

"I'll go afterwards. Besides," he says, putting his lips to my head, "have you ever seen a Marine in dress blues?"

He pulled me forward and planted a kiss on my lips.

As his lips tugged on mine, I felt his hands roam over my body. We were both dressed lightly for the evening, and there were only two layers of thin cloth between me and Edward. I could feel the heart radiating from his body and I could feel his heart beating as erratically as mine.

We continued to kiss, I could feel Edwards tongue dancing with mine, round and round, his hands focusing mainly on my breast now. I could feel him tugging at the hem of my t-shirt, pulling it up, and unhooking my bra. We parted momentarily for the collar of my shirt to come over my head and he moved his lips to my breast, focusing all his attention on the small B sized mounds.

"There beautiful," he says, teasing the nipples to a point and them kissing them even more. I could feel _him,_ between the thin cloth that separated us and felt a moistness between my legs that I wasn't yet used to feeling. I could feel his hands slowing moving down my legs, heading towards the soft folds covered with soft brown curls.

I felt as he slipped my shorts and underwear down my legs, I assisted by kicking them off, hoping that I'd be able to find them later. As Edwards fingers went in and out of my body, I struggled with getting his shorts off. I couldn't concentrate on the task I was trying to accomplish. I was moaning so loud from his ministrations of his fingers that I just couldn't figure out how to get his shorts off. His lips were on mine, his fingers were in me and I was covered in sweat. Finally, I was able to get the waistband of his shorts down, followed by his boxers and I found the hardness that my hand, and body, had been seeking. I grabbed onto his dick and was surprised by it's length, and girth, never having seen one before I wasn't sure if that was normal or not. I stroked it up and down, and could feel his fingers increase inside me as I increased my hands on him.

"Edward," I moaned. "I need you. In me. Now."

"Are you sure, Bells?" He moaned back at me, his fingers increasing in speed. I yelled his name again and it felt like I was flying, my head was spinning from the sensation that he was producing and all I knew was that I wanted, needed all of him, every last inch.

"Yes," I say. I feel him shift and then pause.

"It might not feel good at first. I'll be gentle, I promise." I watched as he slowly lowered himself over me, positioning his penis at my opening.

"I Love You Bella," he says, slowly pushing his way into my folds. I feel him, and I feel full. I feel a lot of pressure and then a sudden ripping sensation. Slowly, he pulls himself back out, and then ever so gently, pushes himself back in. It hurts, but not as much as it did originally. Slowly, he moves back and forth, up and down, and I wrap my arms around his back. Soon it feels as good as his fingers did. Too soon, I feel him clench and feel a warm stream shoot into my body.

And that's when I realized we hadn't used a condom. Shit.

**********************SP***************************************

It had been a week since the first time Edward and I had made love. Since that day, we'd met in the woods every night, and spent those nights worshiping each others body. Edward admitted to watching his fathers stash of porn, and because of this, he was quite experienced with what he needed to do to make me happy, and showed me some things that I could do to make him happy.

We convinced ourselves that the first time, the unprotected sex time, meant nothing. That because I was a virgin everything would be OK.

A week later I kissed him, and watched as he got on a bus headed for Parris Island, South Carolina. My future Marine.

Weeks after that I called him after school and spoke to Tonya for the first and last time. I was devastated and overly emotional about the whole situation. Those first couple of weeks my emotions had been out of control. I didn't know what was wrong with me. Until I missed my period. And then I took a test.

And then it became abundantly clear as to why I was so emotional. So tired. So nauseous.

I was pregnant.


	10. Santa Claus is coming to Town

**A/N: You'll have to wait a while for the answers to all the questions that arose from Chapter 9. **

**But because I'd like to think I'm a nice person here are some important details: At the beginning of this story (Chapter 1), Joseph is 7, which means, a year later, he's now 8. Abbigail is 4 and Anthony is 2. Edward has been gone for 14 years. That should clear a few things up. **

Shattered Perfection

Chapter 10: Santa Claus is coming to Town

Edward POV

I was about to do something I'd never done in my 32 years of life.

Take children, three to be exact, to see Santa.

To say I was scared was an understatement. After going with Bella to her children's soccer games, we had pretty much been seeing each other daily. I'd take her lunch at work, she'd invite me over for dinner, I'd bring her coffee, etc. We were in the 'getting to know you' phase. Again. The only thing we hadn't done, which I was OK with, was sleep together. We both needed a little more time. We'd agreed I should let her children, especially her eldest child, get to know me better. I'd agreed and that's how I ended up at Bass Pro Shop, an hour from Bella's house, to see Santa.

"Momma," I heard her daughter say.

"Yes baby," I heard Bella reply.

"Jojo says I'm not getting presents 'cuse I been bad," I was enamored with Bella's blonde haired cutie. She was smart, cute and a ball of perpetual energy and motion.

"Joseph," I hear Bella say, "is it nice to pick on your sister?"

"No, but she was hitting me," I hear him whine. Joseph was a smart child as well, but he hadn't warmed up to me like Abbigail and Anthony had.

"Abbs, were you hitting your brother?" I hear her ask.

"He maked me mad," I heard the little voice say.

"Made, not maked," I hear her son correct.

"Momma, Jojo pickin' on me."

"Quiet," I heard Bella say, she sounded tired, "or you'll all get coal. I know Santa personally." I snickered a little, since I also knew Santa, not as personally as I'd like too.

"OK kids, everyone out." I looked up and saw a gigantic building in front of us, with motorboats and ATV parked on the cement. as we got out, Bella handed me the baby and I took him without hesitation. Me and. the little guy had become fast friends.

"OK. Joseph, Abbigail, do we all remember the rules?" It's funny seeing Bella in 'Mommy' mode.

"No running," says Joseph.

"No yelling," says Abbi.

"Hold your hand," says Joseph.

"Can I hold Edwards hand?" asks Abbigail.

"If you want Abbs," Bella replies. I watched as the four year old slipped her little hand into mine and we walked into the store.

"Wow," I said looking around. I'd never been the hunting/fishing kind of person but I could understand what the attraction to this store would be. It was an outdoor enthusiast mecca. Apparently, the kids had been here before because Abbigail was excited to show me all the things there were to do in the store.

We walked to the back where there was a large fish tank, it was so large that I'd only ever seen one that size in the Baltimore Aquarium. It had very large fish in it, one I could identify as a catfish and the other ones I couldn't identify. As we walked up the stairs, Abbi had insisted that she wanted to see the 'bear', we came across what she'd been talking about. An eight foot, stuffed grizzly bear, standing on his two hind legs, arms parallel to the ground, in full 'attack' mode. Abbi hugged it. Apparently, her and the bear, who she named Yogi, were good friends. I think that if I were her age, I'd be scared to death, but as I'd learned over the past couple of days, the child was fearless.

As I held Anthony in my arms and watched Abbi play with the bear I looked over and saw an older lady laughing.

"She loves that thing doesn't she," she said, looking over at me.

"Yea. She's not scared of it at all either," I replied.

"Are you taking them to see Santa?" she asked, looking at me again.

"We is going to see Tanta," Abbi says, looking at the older lady. "Momma's down in line, so we don't have to wait long."

"That's nice of your Momma to wait and see Santa. And it's nice that Daddy took you to see the bear," my ear clenched a little as I heard the words come out of the women's mouth. I had no clue as to what Abbi was going to say.

"He's a good daddy," she says, looking at me. "But he's not _my _ daddy," she emphasized. "My daddy is a doctor to all the princesses in Disney World. Edward is Mommy's friend."

"Well it's nice that Edward," she says, looking at me with one of those 'I'm sorry I opened my mouth' smile on her lips, "took you to see Santa. And the bear. You have a good day now." I watched as the women gathered her bags and hurried down the stairs, surely not wanting to get involved in anymore of a conversation with me.

"Abbs, should we go see how your Mom is doing in line?"

"Sure Edward," she slipped her hand into mine again and we walked down the stairs.

I could see that Bella was very close to Santa. She was probably the next person in line, so we walked over to her so Abbigail and Anthony could get in the picture with Joseph. I watched as they all talked with Santa, discussing the various things that they just 'had to have' and then they all smiled and the camera flashed.

As I stared at them sitting on Santa lap, Bella's camera flashing a few times as she got some pictures of the kids, when I realized what I had missed all those years ago. What I had been missing all this time. I couldn't help but think that these would've been my children. That if I would've stayed, like Bella wanted me to, we would've been married all this time, living happily with our little family. Instead, I'd gone off to the military and Bella had married Mike. Now I was pretending that Bella's family was mine. I already knew that I loved her, I couldn't tell her yet, cause I wasn't sure that she was ready to hear it. I guess I'd always loved her. I carried her picture in my wallet for years, a picture taken of us in the meadow that fateful summer. The sun shining down, her face aglow, her hair blowing in the light Washington breeze. She was beautiful.

"So," I say, looking at Bella and waiting for her children to come back from Santa. "Some women asked Abbi upstairs if she thought it was nice that Daddy took her to see the bear," I said, indicating to Bella that I'd been deemed "Daddy" by the women. "Abbi looked at her and said, 'He's not my daddy. My daddy is a doctor to all the princesses at Disney World.' How long has she been telling people that?" I asked. I was concerned, because sooner or later, Abbigail was going to have to know that her father wasn't in Disney, and was really just a big ass. Not that she needed to know that at the age of four, but she needed to know that it would never be just Mommy and Daddy anymore. There would always be another person in the mix.

"A while. That's what Mike told her. It hurts to tell her otherwise. I tried once. Her face fell and she started to cry hysterically. So, I told her something else. And now she doesn't cry as much."

I watched as Joseph guided his brother and sister through the Christmas maze and back to us.

"You guys hungry?" I ask, looking at the kids.

"Yeah," Joseph says, looking at me. "Can we eat here?"

"They have a restaurant?" I ask, looking at Bella for verification.

"Yes," she says, "but Joseph knows that we don't eat there."

"Why?" I ask.

"Because it's overpriced," Bella says, picking up Anthony.

"So? It's a special occasion," I took Abbigail's hand into mine and put my hand out to Joseph. As usual, he blew me off and walked next to his mother.

"Edward, we can just go to McDonalds or something. It's probably packed."

"Can we just go look?" Joseph asks looking at me again.

"We got to go when Dad brought us last time," I looked over at Bella and saw that she had froze. I saw her face fall and knew that the mentioning of Mike upset her.

"Sure, and kids, you can get whatever you want," I look over at Joseph, who appears happy that I've given in.

"I''ll show you where it is," he says, pulling ahead of us.

I watch as he guides us through the crowd and walks up to the waitress station.

"Can I help you?" I hear the woman ask Joseph.

"Can you tell me how long the wait is?" Joseph asks, like the little man that he is.

"There is no wait, sweetie." The waitress replies, looking back at him.

"Edward, can we?" He asks again, looking at me.

I look to Bella for advice, not sure what to do. I don't want to undermine her parenting, but I'm really hungry and I think that the kids are too.

"Sure," she says, looking at me.

"Five people," Joseph says. "My mom, us three and _him_," he says, pointing at me. I had thought for a nanosecond that he was starting to warm up to me, but I guess I was wrong. I watched as Bella gave Joseph the evil eye for the way she said, "him", and I was sure that she'd be addressing it with him later.

I watch as the waitress gather what she needs to seat us, and we walk past several other diners to get to a table sitting next to a huge saltwater fish tank.

"Nemo, Momma," I hear Abbigail say.

"I see them," Bella says, taking Anthony from me to put in the high chair that the waitress put at the table.

"Who's Nemo?" I ask, looking at Bella and Abbigail.

"You don't know who Nemo is?" Joseph says looking at me.

"No," I say, looking back at him.

"Edward doesn't watch Children's Movies, Joseph. He wouldn't know Nemo."

"Who's Nemo?" I ask, looking at Bella again.

"There's a movie by Disney, called 'Finding Nemo', one of the characters is a Clown Fish, whose name is Nemo. Nemo ends up missing and they have to go find him. It's a cute movie."

"I'll have to rent it. It sounds cute. What other movies do you like Abbi?" I ask, looking at the little girl to my left.

"Princess movies. Cinderella, Sweeping Booty, Ariel, Jamine, Pocahanas, No White, and Princess Tiana." I watched as the little girl named all the princesses, counting them off on her fingers. I thought that the way that she talked was adorable, mispronouncing things and dropping off the first letter of words. As I sat at the table I thought again about what our life together would've been like if I had never left. If I had gone to college instead. If the little girl sitting before me would be anything like the little girl Bella and I would have.

I watched as everyone ordered, and our food eventually came. I watched as Bella interacted with her children, helping them cut there food, drink from 'the big cups' and discipline them for picking on each other (which seemed endless between Abbigail and her brother.) I was amazed at the ease with which she handled them. She was a natural mother, and it showed with the way she interacted with her kids.

I didn't understand how Mike could've given everything that he had—a beautiful wife, three great kids, a wonderful career, etc. for a twenty something in California. I couldn't imagine any women more worthy of love and affection than Bella.

After finishing our meal, I watched as Bella herded the children outside and into the car.

"Do you want me to drive?" I ask, looking at her. She looked tired, the glow on her skin was fading and she seemed to walking slower than previously.

"That'd be great," she said, handing me the keys to her SUV. I loaded Anthony into his car seat for her and watched as she buckled Abbigail into hers. Joseph was able to buckle his seat belt himself and I just made sure that it was actually buckled.

I watched as Bella poured herself into the supple leather seating and as I started the car, put the Nav on to guide me back to her house, I saw that Anthony was already starting to drift. By the time we made it to the interstate, all the kids were asleep and it looked like Bella would be there soon as well.

I drove all the way, watching in the rear view as the kids slept. There rhythmic breathing all in sync with each other. I looked over and saw Bella's steady breathing.

My entire family was asleep. It was nice to see them that way after the busy day that they had. It was nice to have the opportunity to see them with Santa, to get to know them a little better and to see what I had been missing all these years.


	11. Surprise

**A/N: Here it is. The answer to one of the most asked questions in my reviews. This story starts in October 1996 and ends the Sunday before Thanksgiving. **

**Thank you to all my readers and reviewers. I do not own Twilight.**

**Enjoy!**

Shattered Perfection

Chapter 11: Surprise

October 1996

"I'm pregnant," I'm looking at my mother. I can't believe those words just came out of my mouth.

I was seventeen years old. The father of my child was three thousand miles away, cheating on me with another women. A women who sounded like a sex phone operator.

"Excuse me," my mother said, looking up at me. She had a look of confusion on her face, mixed with fear.

"I'm pregnant," I say, looking at her again.

"How?" she says looking at me, "who?"

"I'm sure you know how Mom," I still can't believe that I'm having this conversation with my mother. Never in a million years did I think that I would ever be this irresponsible. Ever.

"Who's the father?" she asks, she's crying. The tears are dripping down her face.

"Edward," I say, looking away. The tears are coming down my cheeks.

"Cullen?" she asks, looking at me.

"Yes," I say. I put my hand to my face and wipe the tears away. I can feel my nose starting to drip.

"Does he know?" she asks. I can see her dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.

"No," I say, I can't look at her. I'm too ashamed.

"Don't you think he should?" she asks, I can hear anger in her voice. "Don't you think that he should know what he did to you?" And there it is. The anger. I was expecting this.

"He's not completely to blame." I feel like I have to defend him. It's not completely his fault. It's mine too and I know that I have to take blame for what we both did.

"He's eighteen," she says.

"And I'm seventeen." I say, looking back at her.

"It's against the law," she says.

"Mom," I say, I hand her another tissue. "He can't know."

"When are you going to tell your father?" she asks.

"I don't know how to tell him Mom," I say. I know he'll be upset with me. I know that he'll want to go and kill Edward.

"Tell me what?" I hear his voice. I didn't hear him come in.

"Go ahead, Isabella, tell him." I know that she was angry and upset with me. The only time she ever calls me Isabella is when she's mad or upset with me.

"What do you have to tell me?" My father asks again. My father has not yet changed out his uniform. His gun is still at his hip, fully loaded I'd presume. I'm not scared my father will shoot me, but I am scared that he'll get back in his cruiser and go to Edward's parents home. Something he absolutely can not do.

"Put your gun up first," I say to him.

"Isabella, if you have something to tell me, you need to tell me." I watch as he reluctantly undoes his duty belt and hangs his gun on the hook at the front door, where it's always kept.

"Now what is it?" He asks again, looking at me.

"I'm pregnant."

***********************************SP*********************************************

May 1997

"OK, one more Bella. your doing so good. Big push, big, here it comes."

My body felt like it was ripping apart as I pushed the baby out of me.

"It's a boy," I hear the doctor say.

I was exhausted. I had been in labor for 12 long and agonizing hours. I looked down as they cleaned the baby off and then handed him to me. he was so handsome, and looked so much like Edward. he had a full head of red-brown hair and emerald eyes. no doubt who he belonged to.

"He's beautiful," I hear the nurse say. "I need to check him out Isabella." I watched as the nurse took my baby from my arms and over to a waiting table. I listened as her exercised his lungs, he had a nice loud cry and seemed to be moving all his arms. He sounded perfect. I watched as he was swaddled by the nurse and rolled out of the room.

"I'm going to take him to the nursery, you'll see him soon," the nurse said as she walked out of the room. A few minutes later I was taken up to my room where I found my parents waiting for me.

"He's beautiful Bella," my mother says.

I look up at my father and see tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Daddy," I say, looking at him. I knew that this whole ordeal had been hard on him. He was very angry at Edward when he first found out I was pregnant and was prepared to fly across the country and shoot him on site. My mother talked him out of that thankfully. Then, after telling him that I was going to live with my grandmother while I was pregnant, he was very upset to see me go. My father and I had always been close, our whole family really had always been close since it was so small.

"It's past time for apologizing. Now we need to move on. You have a life to live," I watched as he walked out of the room, wiping at his eyes.

************************************SP********************************************

Present Day

My mother had been begging me for month to come and visit for Thanksgiving. I was reluctant at first because I hadn't been home since Mike had left. My mother, who always thought that Mike was a wonderful husband and father, was convinced that Mike left because of something I did. I finally convinced her that I didn't do anything wrong, and that it was him that left. But it had taken two years.

My father had never liked Mike. He never liked Edward either. The only boys he actually liked were my brother, Masen, and my two sons, Joseph and Anthony. He had always been of the impression that no one was good enough for his little girl.

So it was with trepidation that I asked Edward to drive us to the airport. I didn't really want to leave my car at the airport, and since Edward had to stay in Charlottesville for the holiday, he was more than happy to help.

"So," he says, pulling me in for a hug. "You'll be gone for?" He looks at me questioningly.

"A week." I say, looking back at him. "We return Sunday, in time for school Monday."

"An entire week?" He asks looking at me once again.

"Yes, an entire week. Think that you'll survive?" I hug him back, relishing the feel of his arms around me.

"Maybe," he says. "I've lived off Ramen and Hungry-man longer than that," I giggle a little, knowing that he's telling the complete truth. He really can't cook. He can barely use a can opener.

"Bye Anthony, bye Abbi." I watch as my four year old runs to hug him. I still can't believe how much my little girl has taken to him.

"Bye Joseph," I hear him say. My son pulls out his iPod from his coat and puts his ear-buds in. Completely ignoring Edward.

"Joseph," I say, pulling an ear-bud out. "Edward is speaking to you."

"So?" He says. He puts his ear-bud back in his ear and I hear the volume going way up.

Again I yank at the ear-bud "At least say thank you for bringing us here."

"Why? I don't want to go see Grandma and Grandpa. There old." Again he puts the ear bud back in, grabs his bag and heads towards the terminal.

"Bella," Edward says, "Don't worry. He'll get over it, eventually." I feel his lips press against mine briefly and give him another squeeze. His muscled arm hug me one more time and then I feel him release me. "You better get going. I don't want to be responsible for you missing your flight."

"Thanks," I say. "I'll see you Sunday."

I grab Abbi's hand and push Anthony towards the security check point. I find Joseph there, waiting for me.

"That was not nice," I say to him.

"I don't like him," he says, I watch as he starts taking his shoes off.

"I don't care if you like him. He's a nice man. And he was nice enough to bring us here so that nothing happens to our car."

"Whatever," he says. He turns his back to me again and continues with his shoes. This is not the end of the conversation, but I know that I'll have to finish it later. There is no way he is going to talk to me now. He has a temper, just like me.

********************************************SP************************************

Several hours later we land in Washington and I see my father waiting for us as we exit the plane.

"Hey Bells," my dad says, giving me a hug and grabbing our carry on bags.

"Did you check any?" He asks.

"Yeah," I say, unfolding Anthony's stroller and putting him in it.

We walk over to the conveyor belt spitting out luggage. I point ours out and soon we're in my father's SUV and headed for my parents house. After what seems like forever, we pull into my parents driveway and I jump out to stretch my cramped legs. I've been sitting for way to long today.

"Bella," I hear my brother's voice as he opens the front door.

"Masen," I look up at him and give him a hug. I feel small standing next to him. He's getting really tall. It seems like he's grown a ton since last summer, when he was visiting.

"Uncle Macy," I hear Abbi say. She runs to him and he picks her up and spins her around. He gives her a hug and a kiss and then puts her back down.

"Hey Jojo," Masen says to Joseph. "What's up dude?" He asks.

"Mom has a boyfriend," he says. Everyone pauses and turns to look at me. I can feel my face start to blush, my skin starting to burn.

"Joseph Michael Newton," I say. "What did I tell you?" I say.

"So Bells," my mother says, I hadn't even noticed her outside until she spoke.

"Who's the lucky guy?"

"His name is Edward," my precious daughter says. She never could keep a secret. "He's Mommy's 'old friend'". I see her use little quotation marks, just like she's seen me do in the past. If I wasn't so pissed, I'd be laughing.

"Edward," my father says, pausing as he gets ready to step over the threshold into the house. "Cullen?"

"What did I tell _you_?" I ask, looking at my four year old.

"Not to tell Grandma and Grandpa about Edward," she repeats, verbatim to me. "And I didn't," she says. "Joseph did."

"Isabella," my mother says. This is not good. It's never good when she says the "I" word.

"Yes Mother," I say, staring her in the eyes.

"We'll talk later," my mother says. Realizing that this moment may not be the best time to talk about him.

Three hours later, I'm all unpacked and my kids are asleep. Masen and I are hanging out in the living room, watching TV.

"Hey Bells," Masen says "you wanna go get a movie?" We hadn't been home for a day and already Masen wanted to go out.

"I'm sleepy Masen. I'm not sure I could make it through a movie, or to the store to get one." I really was tired. The time change was killing me.

"I'll drive," he says, grabbing the keys off the hook by the door.

"You don't have a license," I say, grabbing the keys out of his hands. "I'll drive."

After telling Mom where we were going, I pull out of our driveway and head to the grocery store, which also doubles as the movie rental place.

"What do you want to get?" he asks looking over my shoulder at the selections.

"I don't know," I say, eyeing the Romantic Comedy selections.

"I'm gonna go get some snacks, you want me to look for something for you?" I watch as he turns around and walks down the aisle.

"Popcorn," I say.

I stand there for a few minutes, I really can't decide what I want to watch.

"Bella?" I hear someone say behind me. I don't recognize the voice. I turn around, curious to see who it could be. After all, I've only been in town for a few hours.

"Hello?" I say, turning around to see a small women with chestnut brown hair standing in front of me. She has his eyes.

"Your Bella Swan right?" the women asks.

"Newton." I say, "my last name is Newton now."

"Do you know who I am?" She asks.

"Your Edward's mom, right?" I'm not sure. I never actually met Esme Cullen in person. I just saw her in the paper regularly, as she was quite active in the community.

"Yes," she says. She's immaculately coiffed considering the late hour. She's dressed casually in khakis and a light pink sweater and has pearl studs in her ears. I look down at myself and think that maybe I should've cleaned up a little before heading out.

"Edward has told me so much about you," she says. "He's rather enamored with you." I can feel the smile spreading across my face. I love the fact that Edward has told his mother about me.

"I'm pretty fond of him," I say. I'm starting to wonder where Masen is. He's been gone awhile.

"Where are your children?" she asks, looking around.

"With my parents," I say. I hope that Masen stays in the snack aisle until Esme leaves.

"Oh," she says. She seems disappointed in the news that I left my kids home. "That's a shame. Edward has spoken so much about them, especially Abbi-" she froze. I looked at her for a minute. She still wasn't saying anything. I turned around to see what the big deal was, and saw my brother coming up the aisle behind me.

"Who's that?" she asks, he voice barely a whisper.

"My brother," I say, answering her back in the same low voice.

"Why does he look like _my_ son?" she asks looking away from him and back to me.


	12. We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Part 1

**A/N: ** I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas. This is part one of two chapters. The second chapter will be posted by the end of the week. I got some **_very_** strong reactions to the last chapter. The only thing that I can say is that Bella had her reasons, and they will be revealed, eventually. My thoughts go out to the families that don't have their loved ones home with them this year, most especially my sister, who's raising her 12 kids (yes, she really does have 12 kids, and no her last name isn't Duggar) while he husband is sercing our country. He's currently deployed to Afghanistan.

Edward's tattoo can be found on my profile.

I have posted a one shot called "B Shift". It can be accessed via my profile. It's rather lemony. If well received, it will turn into a story after this story is done.

Shattered Perfection

Chapter 12: We Wish you A Merry Christmas, Part 1

"I always thought that he looked like my father," I say to Esme Cullen.

I look over at Masen. It seems like he is walking down the aisle in slow motion. I have to think fast. There is no way that I can admit to Esme Cullen that my brother—er son, is her grandson. If she finds out then she is sure to tell Edward. And he can't know—at least not yet. I can't handle him knowing.

Because if I tell Edward then I'll have to tell Masen. And Masen is completely clueless as to who his real parents are. I don't think that he'll take it well. I don't want his academics to suffer. Besides, my parents would be devastated if they have to tell Masen the truth. And I would be devastated if I had to tell him that I was really his mother.

"Who's this sis?" Masen asks, coming up to me and hanging his arm over my shoulder. A trademark Masen move.

"This is Esme Cullen," I say. "Edwards mother."

"Hi, I'm Masen," he reaches his hand out and she takes it and shakes it. I know that she wants to do more. That she wants to pull him into her arms and hug him. But she doesn't. And for that I'm thankful.

"Hello Masen," Esme says. "It's nice to meet you. What grade are you in?"

"Um, tenth," he says. I'm sure that he thinks the line of questioning, from a complete stranger is weird.

"So that would make you..." I hear Esme's voice drift off, hoping that Masen will answer the question about his age.

"13," he says, "I skipped two grades." I look up at my son and realize that Esme has put it all together in her head.

"When's your birthday?" she asks.

"May," Masen replies. If I don't do something and quick, Masen is going to figure out that something is up and then I'm going to have to explain everything.

"Masen," I say, "we need ice cream. Can you go get some?"

I watch as he turns around and goes to the ice cream section.

"You can't say anything," I say to Esme. "He doesn't know. He can't ever know."

"Edward has a right to know," Esme is pleading with me. I can hear it in her voice and see as her face frowns. "It's the only child he'll ever have." I can see the tears at the corners of her eyes. She's going to cry, right here in the store. I can't let Masen see this.

"I'll tell him," I didn't think that I would ever have to make this decision. "I just need time. Give me until the end of the month—I'll tell him before the New Year."

I looked up just in time to see Masen coming down the aisle, with a container of Mint Chocolate Chip in his hand. "Give me some time," I whisper and watch as Esme walks away.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I knew that Edward had a right to know. But telling him also meant telling Masen, which is something my parents and I swore we'd never do. I couldn't do it. I was hoping that when I told Edward about Masen I could convince him to not say anything to him. I wasn't sure how much Edward would cooperate with that decision, but I would think of some way to keep him from saying anything to Masen.

************************************SP********************************************

Three weeks had gone by since seeing Esme in the grocery store. Since my arrival back home in Virginia, Edward and I had spent a lot of time together. He spent time with my two youngest kids, but still hadn't been able to get close to Joseph.

It was a week before Christmas, and two weeks before I told Esme I'd tell Edward. I still hadn't figured out how to tell him. My mother suggested that I just sit him down and tell him, and apologize profusely. I wasn't sure that was going to work, but I figured that it would be worth a try. My father suggested I break up with Edward, and we'd all move somewhere away from the Cullen's. I didn't particularly like that answer and it seemed rather extreme. I really wanted to keep Edward. It was hard lying to him, even harder now that Esme knew the truth. I didn't know what to do.

"Mom," I realized at that point that I had been daydreaming in my kitchen. I was curious at to how long I had been standing there, thinking about the answer to my dilemma.

"What honey?" I turned around to look at Joseph standing in front of me, his Leapster in his hands.

"This thing is broken. I need some new batteries or something. It's not working anymore." I took the computerized game from him and pushed the on button. It didn't do anything. I took the back off and found the batteries and replaced them, hoping that was the solution to the problem. I pushed the button again and it didn't turn on.

"I don't know what's wrong with it. Maybe Edward can look at it when he comes over tonight," I watched as he frowned, clearly not happy that he'd have to see Edward again.

"Nevermind. I'll get Daddy to look at it the next time he comes to visit," I watched as he threw it on the counter top and walked out of the room. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with that child. It didn't seem like he would ever like him, and no matter what I did, he seemed to dislike him more and more each day.

"Hello," I answered my phone, knowing that it was Edward. He called every night around the same time.

"What are you doing?" He asks me.

"Joseph broke his Leapster. I'm trying to fix it. I replaced the batteries but it still doesn't work." I huffed into the phone, hopefully not showing the annoyance in my voice.

"Maybe I can look at it the next time I'm over," He was so sweet. He knew that Joseph didn't like him and yet he was nice enough to offer his assistance.

"That'd be nice. I'm not really a technological person."

"I know. Um, do you think that I can come over after the kids go to bed?" Edward had been coming over frequently after my children were asleep so that we could spend time together without them around. We didn't sleep together, as we hadn't consummated our relationship yet, but we'd gotten close a few times. Every time we got close, we either got interrupted by the kids or his phone. Which seemed to go off regularly. I understood that he worked for the government and was 'on call', but it was worse than when Mike was on call. They never seemed to leave him alone.

"Yes," I say breathily. I really did want to see him, I needed to see him. I really needed him. My vibrator just wasn't doing it for me anymore. "What are you doing next weekend?" I ask.

"Besides Christmas stuff, nothing really," I knew that he wasn't going home, but I wasn't sure if he'd be speaking with his mother anytime soon. I was afraid that she would say something before I had my chance. I was determined to tell him myself, I just needed a few more days.

"Alice has volunteered to keep the kids so that we can spend some private time together," I hoped that he got what I was trying to say.

"Really?"

"Ye-" Before I could finish my sentence I heard the blood curdling scream of my daughter. "I gotta go."

"I know, I heard," I hear as he hangs up and I head up the stairs, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

"Why are you screaming?" I ask, looking at my four year old.

"Jojo pulled my hair," I looked over at my son who had a few strands of blonde hair in his hand.

"Joseph?" I looked at him hoping that he would explain. I really wanted to scream "What the hell!" at him, but figured that'd be bad parenting.

"She wouldn't give me her Leapster." He just looked at me with a 'duh' look on his face. Oh gee, Mom, you should've known that was the answer.

"It's hers. I told you I would fix yours. Did you ask her if you could borrow it?"

"No. I took it." Joseph shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal and I got the overwhelming urge to spank him.

"Joseph Michael. You do not take things from your sister. You do not rip her hair out of her head. Go sit in the bathroom. I'll come get you when I'm ready for you." I never sent him to his bedroom, he had way too many things to entertain him in there.

I checked my daughter's head to make sure she wasn't badly hurt and put her computer game back together.

*******************************SP*************************************************

It was Christmas afternoon. My children had opened all of there presents and were playing contentedly with them in the living room. My children had gotten everything on there 'Santa' list. Mike had overindulged them and bought way too many toys. I had told them that Santa was on a budget this year, preparing them for a lighter Christmas than in past years. I wasn't surprised with Mike. He always liked to spend big. What surprised my more was the fact that he got me a gift. I almost fainted when I opened the white box with the red ribbon. I know it was traditional Apple wrapping. I'd gotten an iPod and Mac several years previous and knew what it looked like. I was not expecting the iPad. He'd gone way, way overboard.

"What the fuck," I muttered under my breath. I picked up my phone and dialed his number.

"Hey Honey," I heard him answer the phone. I almost puked in my mouth when I heard him call me that.

"What the fuck," I whispered into the phone. "What possessed you to do this?" I asked.

"You don't like it?" He was being way too loud, and now that I listened more closely, I could hear some more noises in the background.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"The ER. Seeing a patient who broke his arm."

"Since when do you go to the ER?" Mike didn't normally go to the ER. He usually had the Pediatrics resident on call do it.

"I had nothing else to do today. I volunteered to work."

"Nothing else to do today? You could've come to spend the morning with your children. Or better yet, have them over at your house so they could spend some time with their father." I was trying not to yell, and attempting to control my voice.

"Someone has to pay for the gifts Isabella."

"I HAD IT UNDER CONTROL. YOU JUST HAD TO BUY THERE LOVE. LIKE YOU ALWAYS TRY TO DO. FOR ALL I CARE, YOU CAN COME AND GET THEM ALL." I slammed my phone shut and turned around to find Edward, standing in my foyer. He'd let himself in.

"Who was that?" he asked, coming over to me.

"Mike," I grabbed onto the counter top and took several deep breaths. I needed to calm myself down. "He got me a completely inappropriate gift."

"He got you a gift?" Edward looked confused. I wasn't confused. I knew why he did it. I was just mad.

"Yeah," I slowed my breathing down to an acceptable rate and walked over to the gift and handed it to Edward. "Inappropriate," I said as he opened the box and looked at the iPad.

"Wow," is all he says.

"Woo hoo," I hear, as Alice walks in the house. "Auntie Alice is here." I watch as Alice and Jasper walk in, with a bunch of gifts in Jasper arms. Leave it to Alice to make Jasper carry the gifts.

I watch as Edward places the iPad on the counter and walks over to help Jasper with the gifts. After placing them on the floor of the living room, I watch as Edward walks out the door. My assumption is that he's going to get more gifts.

An hour later, we've opened the gifts brought in by Alice, Jasper and Edward.

"Kids," I say, looking at my two oldest children, "what do you say?"

"Thank you," I watch as Joseph picks up the Nintendo DSi that Edward got him and heads up stairs. I hope that he's going to play with it and not destroy it.

"So what are you going to do with it?" Alice asks, picking up the iPad and looking at it.

"Return it," I say. I don't want anything to do with that thing.

"Bells, do you know how cool this thing is?" Jasper says, turning it on and playing with it.

"He's trying to buy me back and I won't stand for it. You can have it if you want it." I watch as Jasper thinks about it for a few seconds.

"No, you should give it to Masen. He'd love it."

"That's a good idea." I watched as Jasper turned the thing off and put it back in the box. I'd mail it to Masen on Monday.

"Well," Alice says. "This is for you. But don't open it until you're gone." She hands me a pink bag with 'Victoria's Secret' written on the side and I can feel my face start to blush. It's embarrassing having your best friend by you lingerie.

"Thanks...we really should get going." I stand and walk up the stairs to get the bag that I've packed for the overnight trip that we have planned. I walk back down the stairs and see Edward standing at the door, waiting for me.

"Let me take that for you," he grabs the bag from my hand, and with his other hand, he takes my hand and leads me out the door.

We drive for a few minutes in silence. I know what we are planning on doing tonight—and I'm not really nervous about it- I'm just nervous about the conversation that is going to follow.

Yes, that was my decision. I was going to have hot, steamy sex with Edward Cullen. And then I was going to tell him he had a son.


	13. We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. No copy right infringement intended.

I'd like to let everyone know that I believe in a HEA. It's gonna take a few more Chapters until we get back to that point though.

For those of you who are interested, I have written a one shot, called B Shift. If it's popular as a one shot, I"m going to make it into my next story, after the completion of this one.

Lemon Warning Dead Ahead.

Shattered Perfection

Chapter 13: We Wish you a Merry Christmas, Part 2

Bella POV

I watched as Edward navigated into the parking lot and pulled his car in the the first parking space that he came upon. He put his car into park and grabbed his keys, popping the trunk at the same time. He grabbed my bag and we headed into the hotel, hand in hand.

I hope this goes well.

After checking in and making it up to our room Edward dropped our bags and pulled me into his arms.

He kissed me gently, pulling my bottom lip into his. I kissed him back and shoved my tongue in his mouth. We stood like that for a few minutes, kissing each other back and forth, his hands resting on the small of my back and my hands resting on his shoulders.

Slowly, I felt him slipping his hands underneath my sweater, his hands slowly making there way up to my bra. I felt him undo the hooks of my bra and felt him push it aside so that he could touch my breasts.

"They've gotten bigger," he says, kneading them with them with his hands.

"Pregnancy does that," I say.

"There nice." He continues kneading them and then pulls his lips from my mouth, pushes my shirt up and takes one of my buds into his mouth. My nipple comes to attention in his mouth and I hear a moan.

That's me, I realize. I'm enjoying this, a lot. I pull my sweater off and feel my bra come off my shoulders and fall to the ground. I pull at Edwards sweater, anxious to feel his chest against mine, the warmth from his body.

His removes his head from my breasts long enough for me to pull his sweater off and I run my hands over his back as he pulls my other nipple into his mouth. I feel his hands roam lower, moving towards the folds between my thighs. He undoes the button on my pants and I kick my shoes off. Slowly, he pushes my pants down and I step out of them. He removes his lips from my nipple and moves me over to the bed.

"Lay down," he says. I lay myself down on the bed, my heart rate increasing at the thought of Edward inside me again. He pulls me to the edge of the and picks my legs up, wrapping my ankles around his neck. He drops to his knees and I feel a single, solitary finger plunge deep into my folds.

"Oh," I moan. I've been waiting so long for this. "More," I say. I love foreplay, but I'm so anxious to have him inside me that I'm impatient.

"Patience, Bella. Patience." I can feel him add another finger and slowly work his way in and out of my folds.

"Oh," I moan again. I can feel my juices pouring out. His fingers are going in and out and then he plunges his tongue inside me. "Oh, Edward."

He licks all around me, and then inside me. Pleasure soars through every cell of my body. His tongue and his fingers move in and out. I have my ankles locked around his head and my hands are in his hair. I feel like I'm doing a situp, curled up to play with his hair, and convulsing as every cell in my body comes to life.

"Oh fuck," I say. I watch as he removes his face from my center and stands in front of me.

"Did you like that," I can't really say anything, as I'm still convulsing from the immense pleasure that just surged through my body. I just shook my head back and forth indicating I'd enjoyed it. I watched as he removed his pants and saw his boxers tenting, his erection quite evident. He pulled the waistband of his boxers down and as they fell to the floor I took a deep breath in.

"Oh my God," I say breathily.

"What?" He says.

"It's huge." I watch as a smile spread across his face, and he places his hands on his hips. If he had a cape he'd look like Superman.

"Did you forget?" He asks, looking at me. His cock is dripping with precum and is completely erect.

"Yeah," I say. I wrap my legs around his waist and pull him towards me. I had to have him inside of me.

"Condom?" he asks, looking at me. I shake my head back and forth. I didn't see a need for one, since his injury had rendered him sterile.

I watch as he unwraps my legs from around his waist. He pushes me up to the top of the bed so that my head is resting on the pillow.

"Your beautiful Isabella." I watch as he climbs onto the bed and I spread my legs, anticipating his entrance into me. I watch as he directs his cock to my entrance, slowly he teases me with his tip. Slowly, he pushes into me, giving my body time to adjust to the magnitude of his cock.

Slowly, he pushes, until his balls are kissing my perineum. Slowly, he moves back out of me, taking himself completely away and then slowly pushing back in.

He slowly moves in and out, up and down, and I can feel my second orgasm of the evening building inside of me. He gradually increases his speed, pushing in and out. I move my legs and lock them around his abdomen and move my head to find his lips.

"Do you like that?" He asks.

"Yes," I say. "So good." I kiss him as he pumps in and out of me. The tingling sensation in my stomach getting stronger.

"Better than him?" He asks. Why the hell is he talking about my ex-husband at a time like this?

"Yes." I can't concentrate on a conversation at this point and I don't know how Edward can.

"Bigger than him?" He asks again.

"Yes," I say again.

"Feel me, Isabella. Forget about him and his little dick. Feel me as I pleasure you beyond belief."

He started moving faster, pushing himself farther and farther inside of me. Only thing I could do was hold on. In our ten years of marriage, Mike had never been able to make me orgasm with sex, something that I'm sure Edward was going to do by the end of the night. I wrapped my legs around his waist even tighter and could feel him as he moved in and out, in and out.

"I'm almost there," I say, panting. He moves his hand between us and presses his finger against my clit as he slows his pumping down. Slowly in and out, in and out. I feel him pinch my clit and feel my body exploding.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," I yell. I could feel my body clenching, milking his erection, I wanted to feel him give me everything.

I felt his speed himself up, pushing my ankles up onto his shoulders. He started to thrust harder into me, pushing himself in all the way to the hilt and pulling himself all the way out. Over and over he pulls out and then pushes in. I can feel myself building up to another orgasm.

I haven't yet recovered from the first orgasm only moments before. He reached his hands up to breast and started to pinch my nipples between his fingers.

"Come with me, Bella." He started pushing harder and harder into me. Pinching, kneading and massaging my breast. He moved his fingers again to my bundle of nerves. I could feel myself on the edge, ready to fall over it, again. Again he pinched me and I felt as he exploded into mine, his warm seed soaking into my cells and I was there again. Falling over the cliff, ever cell in my body exploded.

I'm speechless. Edward had just made me orgasm in the space of an hour. I couldn't believe it.

We'd fallen asleep after our marathon love making fest. We'd made love two more times in the middle of the night, both times I orgasmed again. I couldn't believe that Edward was so good at this. I couldn't believe what I had been missing all these years.

"Good morning love," I heard him whisper into my ear as he kissed me awake.

"Good morning," I say, kissing him back.

"When do you need to be home?" he asks.

"Not for a while," I reply knowing that Alice and Jasper have everything under control.

"Hungry?" he asks.

"For you?" I ask, hoping he says yes. My lady parts begged to have company again.

"For food," he replies. "Your stomach is growling."

"Oh," I sigh, "OK." I watch as he stands up and slips on his shorts. He walks over to the table and grabs the room service menu.

"What do you want?" he says as he lays back down next to me.

"Whatever, I don't have to cook and I"m happy about that." I sit up and pull the sheets up to cover my chest. My brown hair slips over my shoulder and I push it behind me. I look over at Edward and stare. I want to remember ever minute of this time together.

"OK. I'll order the Big Breakfast for Two." I watch as he picks up the room phone and orders our breakfast.

"So," he says, looking at me. "Last night you said you wanted to talk to me about something."

"After breakfast," I say. I need to postpone this conversation for as long as possible.

"Breakfast is going to be awhile," he says. "How bad could it be?" I sit there for a minute thinking of just how bad it could be. It could be really, really bad. He could get up and leave. Or he could forgive me. I'm not sure what the results were going to be.

"Well, um, remember when I told you about my brother?" I turn towards him and take his hands into mine.

"Masen," he says, looking at me. "Where'd you come up with that name?" he asks, looking at me.

"That's part of the story, I'll tell you later."

"He's thirteen years old," I say. I'm hoping I don't have to tell him the whole thing, that eventually, he'll put two and two together and figure it out.

"OK," is all Edward says.

"He has green eyes."

"OK," again, it's the only response from Edward.

"He's a genius."

"OK," Edward's monosyllabic responses were starting to annoy me.

"He's yours," I had said it. It was done.

"What?" He says, looking at me.

"That summer, after you left, I, um, found out I was pregnant."

"He's mine?" Is all he says. I can see the confusion play across his face. "But you said your parents had him?"

"They adopted him after he was born," I couldn't look at him, I was too ashamed.

"So, I have a son." Is all he says.

"Yes," Now it's my turn for the monosyllabic answers.

"And you've kept him from me for thirteen years?"

"It was the only way," I watched as he threw my hands down, and got up off the bed.

"No, Isabella, it wasn't." I watched as he started to pull his clothes on. "You should've told me. I had a right to know."

"You were gone. You were married to her by the time I found out. I gave him up so that I would have a chance. My parents convinced me-"

"Your parents were wrong. I would've come back. I would've been there for you. We could've raised him together." I watched as he searched the room for something. I wasn't sure what he was looking for.

"I'm leaving," I watched as he locates his car keys and walks out the door.

I got up and threw my clothes on and ran outside to find him in his car and pulling out of the parking lot. He was gone. Again.

I found my cell phone and called Alice.

"Can you come get me?"


	14. Separation

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

Shattered Perfection

Chapter 14

"You wanna talk about it?" Alice asked as I slid into her car.

"No," I say, "I don't." I watch as she backs out of the parking lot and pulls onto the highway. We sit in silence for the ten minute drive to my house.

Alice doesn't know either, and I can't tell another person today. I'm just not mentally prepared for that.

"Thanks for the ride," I say as I get out of the car. I grab my overnight bag and walk into my house.

"Thanks for watching them Jazz," I don't say anything else to him. He looks at me for a minute, perplexed I"m sure as to why I'm home so early.

"Kids," I say. "I'm home." I listen as my children come thundering down the stairs.

"Momma," My kids all clammer for my attention, giving me hugs and kisses. Joseph hands me Tony and I give him a kiss as well.

"You home so arly, Momma," Abbigail says.

"Where's Edward?" Joseph asks.

"Momma," Anthony says.

"Edward went to his house," is all I say. I'm not really ready to answer any questions.

I watch as Jasper picks up his things and walks out the door. I don't really say anything to him. I know that he doesn't have a clue as to what is going on, but I'm sure he'll find out from Edward.

********************************SP************************************************

"Fuck," I say to myself as I open the legal sized envelope. I had a feeling this was coming. It had been a month since I last saw Edward. In that time, he'd subpoenaed Masen's medical records and has filed documents to gain visitation. Last week, Masen had been subjected to a DNA test. It had determined what I already told him.

That Edward was Masen's father.

We hadn't told Masen yet. We'd explained to him that he needed to have blood drawn for school.

Another lie.

I hadn't been feeling too hot since this whole situation went down. I had gone to the doctor, who told me I had the flu. I had been treating myself with Vitamin C, Echinacea and Tamiflu. I still felt like shit. I had been depending on Mike more and more each day as I got sicker and sicker. Alice and Jasper had found out from Edward what had happened. They took his side.

It was hard loosing my best friend. Knowing that the friendship we'd built was gone in an instant. I was alone. Alice couldn't believe that I had been lying to her all these years about Masen. She had even once stated how much he looked like Edward. I convinced her she was wrong. Every lie that I ever told was coming back to haunt me.

"Bella," I heard Mike say from the threshold of my room. "I'm taking the kids to school."

"OK," I yell as I run to the bathroom, yet again to barf my brains out. I hated having the flu. And I absolutely hated being sick.

Thirty minutes later Mike returned to find me laying on the cold, hard, tile floor. I was wearing a tank top and panties and I was burning up.

"Bella," I heard Mike say. "You need to go back to the doctor. Maybe you need IV fluids. You look really, really pale."

I can feel him cover me with a blanket and he picks me up and takes me outside to his car. He places me in the backseat and closes the door.

"Alice," I hear him say into the phone. I don't know if he's talking to her or to the answering machine.

"This is Mike, Bella's hus-um ex husband, if you get this message, can you call me?"

I listen as he dials again, this time it's his office.

"Good Morning, Lauren, this is Dr. Newton." I could imagine Lauren's nasally voice. I never liked her.

"I'm gonna need you to push all my morning appointments. I have to take my wife to the ER."

I heard him click the phone off and tried to concentrate on not vomiting in the back of his Mercedes.

"We're almost there Bella." I could hear the concern in his voice. I had never been sick in the history of our marriage. I can feel the car coming to a stop and feel the cold air rush in as the back door opens.

"Dr. Newton," I hear the attendant say, "what's wrong?"

"My wife is acutely ill. I found her on the bathroom floor." I can feel him pulling me out of the car and into the warmth of the emergency department.

"Follow me," someone says. I can feel Mike holding me, his breathing getting heavy under the strain of my body and the blanket.

"What happened?" Someone asks.

"She's been sick awhile. They said she has the flu. But she doesn't seem to be recovering."

I can feel him lay me down on the gurney. I hate hospitals, there always so sterile and white. I fight to uncover my head from the blanket, suddenly I'm way too hot.

"Bella," I hear might say. "What's wrong?" I can hear the concern in his voice.

"Hot," I say, still trying to get the covers off me.

"Let me help you," he pulls the covers off me and before I can control myself I've puked all over the place, including Mike.

"I'm sorry," I say, wiping my mouth with my hand.

"It's OK," Mike says. I watch as a nurse comes in pushing a cart and I know what's next.

"I'm gonna go change," he says, getting up and walking out of the room.

"Do I have to get an IV?" I ask. I absolutely hate needles.

"We need some blood. And you need some fluids." I watch as the nurse finds a vein, attaches the tourniquet and pushes the needle into my pale flush. She fills up several tubes with my blood and then hooks me up to a clear bag of IV fluids.

As soon as the women is finished, Mike walks back into the room in a pair of Ceil Blue scrubs.

"Hello," I hear Mike say. I'm hoping it's Alice calling him back. "I'm sorry to have to call you Alice."

I can't hear the other end of the conversation.

"Yes, I know your not talking to her. No, I don't know why. Alice, I don't want to know."

He's not saying anything else except 'uh huh' and 'I see' for the next several minutes. I have no clue what Alice is telling him. But I hope it has nothing to do with Masen, or Edward.

"She's sick. I had to take her to the ER." Pause "The Flu." Pause "A while." Pause "Oh really." Pause.

"That'd be great." Pause. "OK." Pause. "Thanks Alice."

"What did she say?" I ask. My eyes closed. I can't look at him. I don't really want to know what Alice said, but I do want to know if she told him.

"You broke up with the boy?" Is all he says.

"He broke up with me," I say. Fuck. I hope Alice didn't tell him.

"Why?" He asks. I couldn't tell him. I wouldn't tell him.

"Don't know." I say.

"Are you pregnant?" He asks me. I almost felt like I need to puke again.

"No," I say. I couldn't believe that he would ask me that. Although pregnancy would explain all my symptoms.

"Are you sure?" He asks, moving over to sit next to me.

"Yes," I say. That was one thing I was sure of. There was no way I could be pregnant. Edward had told me he couldn't have kids.

"You took a test?" Mike says.

"No," I say. "Edward can't have children."

"Is that what he told you?" He asks.

"Yes, he was injured in Fallujah." Mike didn't say anything else and I was hoping that he was going to drop it.

"You know," he says, a few minutes later. "Pregnancy would explain all your symptoms."

"Mike," I say, "I'M NOT PREGNANT." I enunciate. He was starting to drive me batty.

"Mrs. Newton?" I heard a voice say.

"Yes," I say. I look up to see a young woman walk into the room.

"I'm Dr. O'Neal. I'm a resident here in Emergency Medicine."

"Hello," I say. "This is my, um, ex-husband, Mike."

"Dr. Newton," Mike says, and stands up to shake the young woman's hand.

"Is it OK for me to speak with him in here?" She asks, returning her attention to me.

"Yes," I say.

"It appears that you have H1N1, also known as-"

"Swine flu," I say.

"That's why you've been feeling so badly."

"When's it going to stop," I ask. "I hate throwing up."

"Soon," she says. "But there are some other abnormalities," I feel myself tense up after those words are spoken.

"Is there any chance that you could be pregnant?"

Again with that fucking question.

"No," I say. The doctor doesn't pry any farther and I'm thankful for that.

"Your anemic, and your Vitamin D levels are low. We'll put you on some iron and a Vitamin D supplements. I want to keep you over night for observation."

"Do I have too?" I ask.

"Bella, don't argue with the doctor."

"Mike," I say.

"Yes," he says.

"Shut up."

"Yes, Bella." He says.

I watch as he pulls his phone out of his scrub top and pushes a few buttons.

"Hi Alice," I hear him say.

"She has swine flu," I hear him say.

"Yes," Pause. "No," Pause. "Yes, I asked." Pause. I can't imagine what she's saying. Maybe she's the one who gave him the idea that I was pregnant.

"Thanks Alice." I watched as he clicked his phone off and placed it back into his scrub pocket.

"She's going to watch the kids tonight and take them to school in the morning," I watch as he looks at me for a minutes, not really saying anything. He seems like he's trying to broach a topic that he knows is going to be very difficult for us to discuss.

"Alice told me about Masen," I didn't know what to say. I just looked at him. My throat dry from vomiting and my eyes glassy from the nausea medication that gave me.

I decided my best defense was denial. I was hoping that he would drop it. I had no urge to talk about this, especially with Mike.

"Why didn't you tell me, Bella?" Mike asks. I haven't answered him yet. My eyelids are getting heavy and I'm fighting the urge to sleep. I'm so tired.

"No one knew, Mike. No one." I couldn't concentrate on a conversation with him right now.

"How'd he find out?" I could see him thinking about the questions in his head, thinking every one of them out before they came out of his mouth. He'd never thought this much about a conversation with me before.

"I told him," I wish that he would shut up.

"Why tell him and never tell me? We were married for almost ten years Bells," I watched as he shifted in his chair. He looked hurt.

"Guilt," I say. He doesn't say anything else to me after that and I drift off to sleep, the nausea meds they gave me finally kicking in and sending me off to sleep.

I'm not sure how long I slept, but I wake up to whispered voices.

"How long has she been sick Mike?" I know that voice, it belongs to my former best friend, Alice.

"Two weeks," Mike says.

"Did they do a pregnancy test?" Alice asks.

"No," Mike says. "She said he got hurt in Fallujah."

"He did," I hear another voice, Jasper, it sounds like Jasper.

"Here's the stuff," I hear Alice say.

"Thanks Alice," I hear some rustling noises and realize that Mike must've sent Alice to the house to get my some things. I wish I could peel my eyelids open and see her, say hi to her, talk to her, but I can't.

I listen as the door closes, assuming that Jasper and Alice left. I don't open my eyes. Don't bother to even let Mike know I'm awake. Soon, I fall back to sleep.

********************************SP***********************************************


	15. Just a little trip to the Grocery store

A/N: It took me a very long time to write this chapter. After publishing the previous chapter, I got a very nasty review from an anonymous reviewer. I can take negativity, that wasn t the problem. The problem was that it was anonymous. If you had that much to say, have the balls to sign your name to it. I m not forcing anyone to read this story, and if you don t like it, stop reading it. But it s MY story and I ll write it how I want to. Now, I am looking for a BETA so if anyone would like to volunteer (including the person who recommended that I get one) I ll gladly take the help. I do have an outline and I know exactly where my story is going. Ok, enough!

Disclaimer: I don t own Twilight, or anything else mentioned in this chapter.

This is an edited chapter. I had a massive computer emergency this week and wrote this chapter on Google Docs because my word processing software got erased. Didn't realize when I posted it the first time that I had no " ". That makes for some confused reading. It has been edited. Even further proof that I need a pre-reader.

Enjoy!

Edward POV

I had a son.

I had a fucking son.

And she never told me.

Even after I told her all about Tonya, and my injury. It took _my_ son meeting _my_ mother for her to say anything.

I wonder if she would've told me if Esme hadn't seen him in the supermarket. If she hadn't made the connection.

As soon as I got home from the hotel I called my mother to let her know what Bella had told me. Imagine my surprise when my mother said that she knew. That she was the one that had confronted Bella about it. She had told me as much as she knew about him.

She'd done all kinds of research on him since she'd found out, and was more than happy to pass that information onto me. He was a genius. He played ice hockey. He was a well adjusted teenager happily living with his 'parents', Charlie and Renee Swan. His middle name was Edward, and apparently he looked just like me. He had Auburn hair and green eyes and was already pretty tall. My mother didn't know how she'd never seen him before, how Bella's parents had hidden him this long. I didn't know either.

She said that it seemed like him and Bella got along pretty well. That they looked like a normal brother and sister in the grocery store.

Imagine how surprised he'll be when he finds out that Bella is his mother and not his sister. And that his precious sister has been lying to him all these years.

"Good morning", I say to Jasper as I walk into the office, two cups of Starbucks in hand.

"Good morning and thanks", he says as I place the cup on his desk. I watch as he picks his phone up and answers it. He must have it on vibrate because I never heard it ring.

"Hey beautiful", he says and I know he's talking to Alice. It's nice that they have a relationship like that. They seem to really get along, and really love each other. I was surprised when they took my side in this whole thing. I was even more surprised when Alice told me that she never knew. She was just as stunned to hear the news as I was.

I'm not trying to eavesdrop. I know that most of theire conversations these days center around Alice's recent discovery of being pregnant and Bella, who they now refer to as 'B', hoping I don't catch on. I gleaned from the conversation over the past few days that Bella was sick and in the hospital. I didn't know what exaclty was wrong with her. Jasper had let it slip that her ex-husband was taking care of her and the kids. I didn't ask if they were back together, or if he knew about Masen. I had convinced myself that I couldn't, wouldn't care about her anymore.

"Tell Mike we'll keep them tonight so that she can have a peaceful night at home." Maybe she was better.

"No," I craned my neck to listen. Jasper had an edge to his vioce and I had never heard him yell at Alice before.

"It's not my place", Pause. "Uh huh," Pause. "NO." Pause. "Dammit, Alice, I said no." I watched as he clenched and unclenched his fists. I didn't know what she had said but he seemed awfully pissed off.

"You do it," Pause. "She's your friend," Pause. "Fucking A, Alice. Fine. Fine. Fine. Just stop bugging me and I'll go do it." Pause.

"Edward," I hear Jasper say, "can you talk to Alice." I walked over the Jasper's desk. Curious as to what his little wife has to say.

"Good morning, Alice."

"Hello Edward," she says. "She sounds like she's been crying," I can hear her sniffling through her nose. "Have you spoken to Bella yet today?"

"No. Why would I?" I ask. Oh lordy, now what has she done.

"You should call her," she says. I'm hoping she's not serious. She knows that were not talking.

"Are you talking to her now?" I ask. I never meant for Alice to take my side, or for Bella to loose her best friend.

"Sorta. Well, yeah, kinda. She's sick," I could hear her blow her nose away from the phone. "I'm sorry," she says, I have a cold.

"Why do I want to call her?" I ask. I have no reason to speak to her. We'd been communicating through our lawyers.

"Just call her. And be nice. She's been really, really sick." I hear the click of the phone before I realize she's hung up on me.

"What's going on Jazz?" I ask, looking at my officemate.

"Don't know," he says looking back at me. I know he's lying.

"Jazz. Don't try to lie to me. I have all kinds of training I can use to get the truth out of you," I watched

as he thought about my statement for a minute.

"And I don't?" He replies, looking right back at me.

"Good point," I say.

**************************************SP******************************************

When I got home that night, I had three phone messages. The first one was from my lawyer telling me he'd been in contact with the Swans, who were contesting the visitation proposition. They didn't want me near Masen. I really think they didn't to have to tell him that they had been lying to him all these years, but they didn't admit to that. They thought that me visinting might cause damage to his academics because he'd have to travel to Virginia. This wasn't true. I'd been completely willing to travel to Washington, even move there if I had to.

The second was from Bella. Asking me to please call her. I deleted it and moved onto the next one.

The third was from Tonya. Telling me that she had broken up with her husband and wanted to try to reconcile. I deleted that one as well.

I called my lawyer back.

"Edward," he answered, "thanks for calling me back."

"James," I said, "you have any other news for me."

"No," he says, "except that you need to contact Bella Newton. She's called my office several times. She says it's very important that you contact her. She refused to disclose what it was relating to."

"She wants me to leave Masen alone," I say. I knew what she was trying to do.

"No, it didn't sound like it had anything to do with that."

"What do you mean?" I asked. What could Bella possibly have to tell me that didn't concern Masen?

"She just said that it was something new that had come up."

"I don't feel like talking to her. I want to see my son. I need that visitation James. I want to go meet him. I'm about ready to get on a plane and fly to Washington, knock on his front door and introduce myself." I was getting angry again just thinking about all the time I had missed spending with him because of all the lies. All the time I missed spending with Bella.

"You have a legal right to see him. We just have to bide our time. Get in front of a family court judge, outside of Forks. Charlie Swan knows too many people in the system. It's going to be a hard fight, but we'll win. Just let me work on it from my end."

"Thanks James. Can you call her back and tell her I'm not interested in the new development and for her to please stop calling me."

"I'll call her."

"Good bye James," I click my phone off and sit down on my couch. I'm not sure if I have any food in my house, it's been a while since I went grocery shopping. I got up and walked into the kitchen to scrounge around in my cabinets. Nothing. Not even a crumb.

Fuck.

I'd have to go grocery shopping.

I walked back out my apartment door and got in my car and headed to the closest grocery store. I pulled into a parking spot and got out, walking through the automatic doors.

I grabbed my cart and naviagted to the frozen food section. The only section I really shopped in.

"Daddy," I hear a little voice say, "can we get ice cream?" I know that voice, but I can't place it.

"Your mom said to only get what's on the list," I hear a man, presumably the father of the little girl say.

"Can we get ice cream if we get some for Mommy?" I hear the little girls voice ask again.

"No. Abbigail, your mother said to only get what's on the list." And I realized right then who it was. It was Bella's daughter, Abbigail. And that other voice must be Mike, the ex-husband. So he was grocery shopping for her? They must be getting back together. Of all the supermarkets in Charlottesville, I had to come to this one.

"Daddy, puh-llllleeeeaaaassseeee. I waaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnt icccceeee cream!" I can hear Abbigal crying. I know from the time that I spent with Bella and her children that Abbi loved ice cream.

"Goddammit, Abbigail, I said no." I heard a noise, what I thought was a slap and then I heard crying. Mike had just hit his child in the grocery store. I knew that no matter how mad Bella got at her kids that she would never hit them in the grocery store. Or yell at that.

I manauvered my cart until I found Abbi standing in an aisle with someone I assumed to be her f ather who had a little boy in the seat portion of the cart. Abbi was still crying, rubbing her arm. I could see the red mark from where he hit her.

"Edward?" I heard Abbi question. She looked at me, closed her eyes, opened them and then looked at me again. Like she was trying to make sure that I was real. And then she ran to me and gave me a big hug.

"I miss you so much Edward." She said all at once. I bent down and picked her up. She threaded her hands around my neck and clung to me. It was nice to have her in my arms again.

"Put her down," I heard him say.

"He's mommy's friend," I hear Abbi say. "Mommy said I could talk to him." I watch as Mike walks towards me.

"Come to me Abbigail," he says, putting his arms out. I look at her curious as to what she's going to do.

"No," she says. Fuck it all. WE're going to have a showdown right here in the Supermarket.

"Yes," he says. I try to peel Abbigail off me, so I don't cause a scene, but she wraps her arms even tighter around me.

"No," she says again. "You hit me."

I was afraid that Abbi was going to amke a scene in the grocery store so I found my cell phone and called Bella. I would've called Alice, but I knew that her and Jasper were going out to dinner and I didn t want to interrupt them.

"Hello," she answers. She sounded pitiful. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Bella, I say, "it's Edward. I know that ' m not supposed to be talking to you because of the lawyer thing but I'm here at Kroger and Mike is here too. And I can t get Abbigail off my leg."

"Why?" she asks. She seems to be out of breath and still hasn t raised her voice.

"Mike hit her. I heard her voice and went to find her and as I rounded the corner, I heard a smacking sound. As soon as she saw me, she ran to me. And now I can t get her off my leg."

"Can you bring her home?" Bella asks. I can still hear her breathing deeply and then I hear a machine click on and a mechanical sound through the phone.

"What's that noise?" I ask.

"A nebulizer.I have the flu and pneumonia. I just got out of the hospital."

"I'll bring her home. I have a built in car seat in the Volvo. Go back to bed."

As I hung my phone up I got concerned about Bellas condition. She had not sounded well and I wondered how she was coping with putting up with Mike. And then I started wondering if Mike had ever done that to Bella or the kids before.

"Come on Abbs, I'm taking you home." I left my cart in the aisle and carried Abbi out to the car. I placed her in my built in car seat and headed in the directioin of Bella s house. After a few minutes, I pulled into her driveway and got Abbi out of the car.

I pressed the doorbell but no one answere. Remembering that Bella had given me a key I opened the door and carried Abbi in. I hoped to sneak in and out without bothering Bella. I placed a sleeping Abbi in her bed and turned around to leave. I came face to face with Bella.

"Hi," she whispered weakly. "Thank you for bringing her home." I took a good look at her and realized just how sick she was. Her eyes were sunken in, her skin was yellow and her hair was dull and not shiny, like I remembered it.

"Hello, Bella." I say. "You look horrible."

"Thanks," she whispers again. "I'm glad your here. I need to talk to you."

"Why aren t you in a hospital?" I ask, interrupting her. She really did look like shit.

"Mike is taking care of me.I don t like hospitals."

"That's where you should be Bella," I said. I looked at her again and saw that she looked skinnier now than I've ever seen her, her robe was cinched around her waist and doubled back. She had lost too much weight.

"Masen knows." She says, putting her hands against the door jam to steady herself.

"You told him?" I asked. I could feel myself getting mad again. How dare she tell him I was his father.

"No. Apparently, he's known for a while that he was adopted. He just didn t know who his biological parents were. Do you remember Mr Banner?" she asked.

"Vaguely. Biology?" I asked looking at her.

"Yeah. Did you ever do the blood typing lab?"

"I don t really remember..." I trailed off. I didn t know what she was getting at.

"I do. Beause I passed out that day. I used to faint at the sight of blood." I couldn t imagine Bella passing out at blood, I had seen her clean up the blood of her children on numerous occassions and never once did she hit the floor.

"Apparently, Masen is B positive. Both my my parents are A negative. He figured out that there was no way he belonged to them."

"What does this have to do wth me?" I ask.

"He met your Mom and realized he was looking at his eyes. And then you had that blood test done on him. And he put it all together. He asked me last week, and I told him the truth. I couldn't lie to him anymore. He knows I'm his mother. And he knows your his father. And he's ok with it. He does want to meet you though."

Suddenly, the lawsuit looked like a moot point. I had everything that I wanted now. Masen knew I was his dad, he wanted to meet me, he had met my mom. What more did I need? I looked at the fragile little woman standing in front of me and realized what I needed now was her. I'd hurt her and I knew it. I hadn t thought about everything that she endured to have the life that she wanted.

"When is he coming?" I asked. I'd fly out to Washington tomorrow if I had to.

"Next month. Anthony is turning two." I would meet my son in a month. I couldn't wait. I'd have to have my parents fly out here as well so that they could meet him.

"Edward," she says. "I really am sorry." She takes a choppy, shallow breath. "I know now that it was the wrong thing to do. But I was scared. I was 17 years old and pregnant. I was still in high school. My parents wanted me to have an abortion but I couldn't do it. The only way I could keep him is if I gave him to my parents. I could' t give him away Edward, I just couldn t do it."

I look at her and see little beads of sweat forming on her forehead. She s breathing rapidly and putting all her weight against the door jam.

"Bells, are you ok?" I ask. She looks like death warmed over.

"Can you help me back to bed?" she asks, her big brown eyes looking up at me. I always have been a sucker for a brown eyed girl.

"You need to go back to the hospital. Bella. Your not getting any better. I'll take you," I saw her shaking her head back and forth. "I can't go to the hospital Edward. Mike is taking care of me here. I'll be ok."

"Bella, your skin is yellow. You can barely breath or stand. Your sick and you need to go back to the hospital." If she refused, I was going to lift her up, carry her downstairs and take her to the hospital.

"I'm not sick. I just need a few more days of antibiotics and then I'll be ok." I listened to her breathing, it was short and shallow and I knew from my military training that her breathing pattern was not good.

"Your going." I walked back into Abbi s room and picked her up, I took her back down to my car and buckled her in. I walked back upstairs and found Bella in the same place I had just left her and picked her up and took her downstairs and put her in the car. Bella was sick, and no matter how mad I was at her, I couldn t stand there and watch her suffer.

It was a short drive to the closest ER. I didn t know what hospital Mike had taken her too, but I decided that the closest one was the best one. I decided it would be best to call Alice, since I was pretty sure that Joseph was home at the house sleeping. Bella had fallen asleep in the short drive to the ER and as I carried her in someone greeted us instantly.

"Can I help you, sir?" The guy asked. "She's very sick. She's not breathing well. She's been sick for a few days. Her daughter is in the car, can you get her?" I placed her on a bed and watched as the man brought Abbi in behind us. She opened her sleep crusted eyes and climbed into my lap.

A few minutes later we were greeted by a doctor. "Mrs. Newton?" He asked, knocking on the glass door of the room.

"Yes," I answered.

"Mr. Newton?" He raises an eyebrow at me in question.

"No, I'm Edward Cullen, her, ah, friend." I watched as Abbi rearranged herself on my lap, clutching my shirt in her little hand and saw the doctor move towards Bella.

"What happened?" He asks me. "She's been sick a few days. She went to the ER a few days ago, they admitted her and then she came home. Her ex-husband is a doctor. He's been looking after her at home. But she doesn t seem to be getting any better. She could barely breath when I dropped her daughter off so I brought her here."

"She needs fluids. I'm going to have someone come in and start an IV and draw some blood. I'll order an xray too. Any chance she's pregnant? We need to know before we do the xray." I watch as he listens to her lungs with his stethoscope.

"I don't know," I say, because honestly, I didn't. I didn't know how close her and Mike had gotten in my absence.

"We'll run one just to be safe." I watched as he exited the room and got to thinking about Mike and Bella. It'd been six weeks since Bella and I had broken up. Had she reconciled with Mike to the point that they were sleeping together? I didn't know if he was staying at her house or not. I hadn't even looked to see if I saw any of his stuff. I knew that since Bella and I shared a child we'd need to get along, but over the weeks I had missed her kids, and her.

A few minutes later, a nurse came into the room with supplies in her hand.

"I hate needles." I hear her say. "I told you I didn t want to come to the hospital." Her comment is obviously directed at me.

"Your sick," is all I have to say. I remember that I haven't called Alice yet and I pull out my phone and dial her number. Luckily, she answers on the first ring.

"Edward," she says. She sounds pissed.

"Alice," I say. "Bella's back at the hospital. Can you go check on Joseph. He's at the house alone."

"Where's Abbi?"she asks.

"Here with me. She's sound asleep. Bella is getting some blood drawn and getting fluids." I watch as the nurse pierces Bella s skin with a needle and fills several tubes with blood. After a minute, she attaches a bag of fluid to the needle and leaves the room.

"I'm just tired, Edward. Why don't you go. Leave Abbs here with me. I'll call Alice to come get her. I don't want to be a bother."

"Bella, your not a bother," I couldn't let her think that.

"You said you hated me," she says.

"No," I say. "I said I hated what you did. I never said I hated you."

"It s the same thing," Bella says.

"No, it s not. I was mad at you. But I realized that you did what you did because you had to. I love you

Bella. I always have. And I'm not leaving." I watch as she closes her eyes. She looks so sick. She laid there for a while, trying to get some more rest. It seemed like forever until someone else came in.

"Mrs. Newton," the doctor says. I watch as Bella's eyes flutter open and she attempts to focus on the doctor." Can I speak in front of your friend?" he asks, looking over at me again.

"Yes," she croaks out.

"Well," he says, looking from Bella to me and then back to Bella." You don t have the flu. You may have had it a few weeks ago, but you don't anymore. I still have to get a Chest xray to check for pneumonia, and based on how your lungs sound, you probably have it." I watched as again he looked at me.

"Are you sure it's ok for him to hear this?" he says. I wish he would just tell her what the hell was wrong.

"Yes," she says again. Her eyes have gotten bigger and she looks scared. I think that she thinks the doctor has some sort of terminal problem.

"It s Cancer, isn t it?" she asks. She has tears starting to sprout from her eyes and I hope that s not what the issue is.

The doctor sits down next to her and grabs her hand. Oh fuck. It is cancer. He's about to tell her she's terminal.

"No, it's nothing like that," I hear him say. "Your hCG levels are elevated." I had no clue what the hell that was.

"Excuse me?" Bella says, her mouth is agape and she's staring at him with a shocked expression on her face.

"What's that mean?" I ask, looking at the two of them. They know something that I don t.

"It means I'm pregnant," Bella says as she turns her head and looks at me.

"Your pregnant?" I say, looking back at her.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Newton!" The doctor says jovially.

"Thanks," she says. I can't tell if she's happy or not. I watch as the doctor walks out of the room. And I turn to look at her and see that she's crying. There are tears streaking down her face.

"Is it his?" I ask. I had a small glimmer of hope that the doctors had been wrong and it was mine. But I didn t think so. But, I also didn t think that she would've slept with Mike anymore.

"No," she says. "I haven't slept with anyone but you."

And in that instant, I knew that my life was about to change forever. I was going to be a father, again, and this time I d be involved in every facet of Bella's pregnancy and in the life of this baby. I couldn't wait to tell my parents.


	16. Happy Birthday to you

**Special thanks to my Beta, Lila and my pre-reader, Carol, for giving me input.**

**Both of you ladies are awesome. **

**According to my outline, there are roughly seven chapters left.**

**The good news is that I'm almost done the next one, after which, it will be sent to the Beta.**

Chapter 16: Happy Birthday to You

Bella (10 weeks pregnant)

It had been a month since I found out that I was pregnant.

We were going to see the OB/GYN today. Edward was coming with me. He was way more excited about this than I was. But then again, this wasn't my first time doing this.

We sat next to each other in the waiting room. We didn't touch or hold hands. We didn't look at baby magazines all googly eyed and giggle. We were uncertain about a lot. We'd decided to not make any drastic changes in our life in the past month. For the time being, Edward decided that he would remain at his apartment and I would remain at my house with my three children. That was another factor. I hadn't told anyone, except Edward, that I was pregnant. I wasn't sure how my parents would react to hearing that once again Edward Cullen had knocked me up. I hadn't told Alice yet because we still weren't on the best of terms and she too had recently found out she was pregnant. I didn't want to take that joy away from her.

"Mrs. Newton," I heard the nurse say. It was not a voice that I recognized, and I thought that she was possibly new.

I stood up and walked towards the exam room, Edward stood up and followed me.

"Bella," Dr. Dunnavant said, giving me a hug. Dr. Dunnavant and I had spent three pregnancies together and I'm sure that she was surprised to see me. "It's nice to see you again." I saw her eye Edward and was curious about him.

"And you are?" She asked, looking towards him.

"Edward Cullen," as he reached his hand out to shake hers.

I watched as Dr. Dunnavant shook Edward's hand and then looked to me for some sort of explanation.

"He's, um, my, um,-" I didn't really know what to say. I'm not sure how to quantify the relationship that we have.

"The father," Edward finished for me.

"It's nice to meet you," she said. "So, you ready to do this again?" She asked, looking at me.

"No," I said. Because honestly, I'm not. I never planned on having anymore children. Mike and I were done. And now, here I was again, pregnant.

"You'll be fine. You haven't had any problems with any of your other pregnancies."

"I know. I just-" I'm not sure what I was. Scared, overwhelmed. Unsure of the future. It was all so confusing.

"Well, let's take a look at the baby and see how it's going," Dr. Dunnavant said.

I laid down on the exam bed and put my legs up in the stirrups. I watched as Edward moved towards me, and quietly sat near my head.

"Edward," Dr. Dunnavant said, "if you look at that computer screen you'll be able to see your baby in a few minutes."

I watched as Dr Dunnavant pulled out the vaginal ultrasound wand. The screen flickered to life and I watched as the baby came into view.

"Is that it?" Edward asked, looking at the little life form on the screen.

"Yup," I said, staring at the black and white form.

"Wow." Edward continued to stare at the screen.

"There's the heart," the doctor said. "It's beating away."

"Wow," Edward said again. "I can't believe that's my baby."

The doctor looked at a few more things with the ultrasound machine before removing it and cleaning it off.

"Get dressed Bella, and you two can meet me in my office."

I watched as she walked out, after ripping the pictures off the printer and handing them to us.

Edward stared at the printouts. I'm sure one will be in the mail to his parents, just as soon as he tells them I'm pregnant.

After getting dressed, Edward and I walked into the doctor's office.

"Any questions?" she asked, looking back and forth between the two of us.

"Just one," I heard Edward say.

"Shoot," she says.

"I was married for almost fourteen years. My wife never got pregnant. And trust me, we tried. They said it was because I was injured and couldn't produce sperm. I'm just not sure how this happened?"

"Well," the doctor said, looking at both of us, "without knowing the exact details of your injury, and your ex-wife's gynecological history, I can tell you that sometimes those injuries can heal themselves, and sometimes it takes years. I could do some testing on you and find out."

"Ok," Edward said, looking at the doctor and then me.

"Anything else?" the doctor asked, looking at the two of us.

"Due date?" I ask. I hadn't heard her say anything.

I watched as she pulled a round contraption out of her desk and moved the dials around.

"September 15, 2011."

"Fantastic. Right before school starts. My principal will love that," I said sarcastically.

"Any other questions?" Dr. Dunnavant asked, looking from me to Edward and then back to me.

"No," we say in unison. It's the only thing we've agreed on in days.

"I'll see you in a month, Bella." I stand up, grab my bag and walk behind Edward, ready to go back to work.

I walk towards the door of the office before Dr. Dunnavant called after me.

"I'll talk to you later," I said. I watched as Edward walked out the office door, assumedly heading to his car. He would be returning to work for the day.

"Ok Bells," Siobhan looked at me, "what the hell is going on?"

Dr. Siobhan Dunnavant and I have been friends since I walked into her office ten years ago. We have children within the same age range and she lives a few blocks from me.

"Remember Masen?" I knew she did. She was one of the only people that knew about him. I'd told her as part of my medical history. She too had given up a child as a teenager. Except unlike me, she had no contact with her child.

"Yeah," she said, opening the mini fridge next to her desk and handing me a bottle of water.

"Thanks," I said, taking the bottle of water from her. "Edward is Masen's father." I watch as she thinks about what I just said. She has an expression of shock on her face.

"Oh my god. All the times we talked about him, you never told me he was an Adonis look-a-like."

"I might have left a few details out," I said, turning the cap on the water and taking a long sip.

"A few?" she said. "How did you get back together?"

"Well. He, uh, is living here. He just got out of the military. He works with Alice's husband. We ran into each other and dated. Until I told him about Masen. And then he got mad. But not before he got me pregnant. Again." I turned the cap on the water bottle and took another long sip.

"So, what's Mike think?" Siobhan asked.

"About what?" I asked, looking at my feet.

"The pregnancy, Bella," she states matter of factly.

"He doesn't know." I said.

"What do the kids think?" She pursed her eyebrows at me, "you have told the kids, right?"

"No. Not yet. No one knows. Except Edward, and now you." I readjusted myself, hoping that she could understand why I hadn't told anyone about this pregnancy.

"When are you going to tell them?" she asks. "You don't have long before you start to show Bella."

"Siobhan, I don't know. I don't fucking know what I'm going to do. Mike doesn't know. Alice doesn't know. My parents don't even know. I don't know how I'm going to afford it. I'm stretched as it is. Mike's behind on his child support. He's living off his savings because he lied about getting back with the practice. All this time he's been telling me that they welcomed him back with open arms. Turns out, they refused to hire him back after he left so abruptly, and now, he's unemployed. He can't find a job because of the way he left. I'm tutoring and coaching just to make ends meet, and with this baby, I'm not going to be able to do as much. Joseph is mad at me for divorcing Mike, Abbigail's mad because I told her she can't do dance anymore, and-" I stopped talking as I saw Siobhan stand up and walk around to me. She bent down and gave me a hug. I was crying. The tears were rolling out of my eyes by this point.

"Have you talked to Edward about all this? He seems excited about the baby."

"He is. It's just-I'm afraid he's going to leave again. Just like last time."

"It's different this time Bella. He knows about the baby." I sat there a minute longer not sure what to say.

"I need to go," I said. "I need to get back to school" I got up and grabbed my bag again, ready to leave.

"You should talk to him," Siobhan said, and gave me a hug. "I'll see you in a month." She walked me to the door and opened it for me.

Edward POV (One month later, 14 weeks pregnant)

Bella was acting funny. She was not her normal jovial self. I called her daily to check on her and see how she and the baby were doing, and each day, she sounded more depressed than the last.

"Bella, what's wrong?" I asked her one night. I had come over for dinner and she had cooked my favorite, lasagna. The kids and I were getting together fabulously and I was thinking about broaching the subject of getting a house together, so that we could share the baby, and her children. It sounded like a better solution than the one we had now.

"Nothing," she said, standing up to take the dishes to the dish washer. I watched as she stood there, scraping food off the plates and put them in the washer.

"You haven't talked a whole lot tonight," I said, getting up to help her.

"I don't have anything to say," she said. She continued to load the washer and then placed a washing pellet in and closed the door.

"Your upset," I took the grated cheese off the table and put it back in the refrigerator and that's when I noticed the empty frig. "Where's all your food?" I know that her kids, especially Joseph, ate a lot, but I've never seen her refrigerator this empty before.

"I haven't gone shopping yet." She moved over to the table with a sponge and started wiping it down.

"Let me do that," I said, trying to take the sponge from her hand.

"I can handle wiping a table down." She moved her hand away from mine quickly and continued to wash the table.

"You want me to take you shopping? You shouldn't be carrying those heavy bags anyway." I watched as she paused for a moment.

"I'm not an invalid Edward," she reached her hand up and swiped at her eye.

"Are you crying?" I was sure that I saw something glistening coming out of her eye.

"Yes," is all she said. She moved over to the sink and put the sponge down.

"Why?" I knew that pregnant women were often hormonal, but I didn't know what she had to be upset about. She wouldn't talk to me.

"I have to sell my car," she said. I didn't know what this had to do with her crying. She didn't even like the car that much.

"Why?" I asked again.

"Well, for one, it won't fit four kids in the back," she picked the sponge up again and started to clean the sink.

I tried to lighten the tone, "Well, you have a while before you'll have four kids in the back." smiling as if it was a joke. "Because really, the baby won't be here for another six months."

"Edward, I don't want to talk about it." She didn't appreciate the joke. I still haven't figured out why she's crying over the car.

"Can you pick Masen up from the airport tomorrow?" she asked. I had almost forgotten that my son was coming to Anthony's birthday party tomorrow. He had a few days off from school and Bella had convinced her parents to send him out here for Anthony's party.

"Sure," I walked up to her and tried to wrap my arms around her, but she pulled away from me.

"I'm really tired," she threw the sponge back in the sink and wiped her hands off with a towel. "I'm going to bed. Can you lock up before you leave?" and she exited the room and headed up the stairs without even a backwards glance.

I locked the house up and drove home to my apartment. As I lay in bed that night I thought about tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'm meeting my son. My mother and father have already met him. After Bella found out she was pregnant, she called her parents and insisted that they let my parents come over. After they met, my mother called to let me know just how wonderful he was. I couldn't wait.


	17. Masen Comes a Visitin'

Thank you to Lila (Fuzzyltlwingedthing), my beta and to Carol, my prereader.

Shattered Perfection

Chapter 17

Bella (14 weeks pregnant)

Masen and Edward would be here any minute.

It was Anthony's third birthday, and the day that we were going to tell everyone our news.

I had spoken to Alice on the phone yesterday, who asked me what she should get him. I told her to get him a cake. She asked me if I was sure and I said yes.

Because, after looking at my finances last week, I realized that I was broke. And that I was going to have to do something drastic in order to survive.

I was starting to hate Mike, like a lot. He had been lying all this time. He had been doing free lance medical work, if that's what you call it, until he could find something more permanent. The problem was, the fact that he left his last job so abruptly, meant no one was interested in hiring him. He had stopped paying child support, and because of this, and the fact that I had been in and out of work for the past few weeks, first with the flu, then pneumonia and then what I thought was a resurgence of the flu, but was really pregnancy, I was very close to being very broke.

I had scrounged up a few decorations that I had from past parties and started to hang them up. I was sorry that Anthony couldn't have new decoration, but honestly, he wouldn't know the difference. I was thinking about parties past, and all the money that I used to spend on them, when I heard my door open.

"Bella," I heard Masen yell, "I'm home!"

I walked into the living room and found Edward and Masen standing side by side. Wow, it was weird seeing them together. They looked like twins. Masen was a few inches shorter, but had the same auburn hair and green eyes.

"Wow," I said, shaking my head and looking at the two of them.

Masen looked at me for a minute, understanding what I was thinking. "I know right," he says, looking from me to Edward and then back to me. "We could be twins."

"Where are your bags?" I asked, looking at Masen and noticing that he hadn't brought anything in with him.

"In the car," Edward said. "He's gonna stay at my place tonight."

"Absolutely, not!" I said, "He's my responsibility and my parents won't like the idea of him staying with you..."

"They won't find out, right Mase?" Edward said, looking at Masen.

"Bella, please?" Masen looked at me with those beautiful emerald eyes and I know I can't say no. I've never been able to say no to him. Ever.

"Fine, but I don't want my parents to find out. That means you don't say a word to them, Masen. You hear me-" I shook my finger at him, "Not one, single, solitary word." I walked back into the kitchen and finished the decorations. I didn't have it in me to argue. I was too tired, and Masen deserved to spend some time with Edward.

"Here," I looked up and saw Masen handing me a box, wrapped in decorative paper, with a ribbon around it. It had a tag with Anthony's name on it, and I recognized the writing on the tag to be my mothers.

"What's this?" I asked, looking at the box in my hand.

"Clothes," Masen said walking over to the fridge and opening it. "Where's all the food, Bells?"

"I haven't had the chance to go shopping," I couldn't tell Masen, or Edward, who apparently followed him into the kitchen, that I had to wait until I got paid.

"Why don't we go now?" Edward said.

"No," I put the present down on the table and grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. "Here," I handed it to Masen.

"What about food for the party?" Masen asked.

"I'm not serving any. I told everyone to eat before they came," I answered.

"What about dinner tonight?" Masen asked, "I really wanted spaghetti. And Edward says that he can't cook." I look over at Edward; apparently they had quite the conversation in the car on the way over. It seemed like Masen knew a lot about him already.

"I can't," Edward said, shrugging his shoulders, "that's why I come over here all the time."

"Fine, let me get the kids," I turned to walk upstairs when Masen speaks. "Leave 'em here, I'll watch them. Besides, the car isn't big enough for everyone."

I just gave Edward a look, knowing that he said something to Masen about me wanting to sell my car. Although, it was true, we wouldn't all fit. I grabbed my purse off the counter and headed out with him.

"We'll be back soon enough," I say to him. I feel Edward's hand on the small of my back, and decide that I like it there. We walk out to the driveway and I get in his Volvo.

"This isn't a bad car," I said to him. I liked his car; it was sporty, yet stylish and drove very well.

"Not big enough," he replied. "What about a mini-van?"

"Um, no," I said. "I've never wanted a mini-van. They are so uncool."

It was quiet for a while until I heard Edward take a deep breath and saw that he was tapping his fingers on his knee.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, looking over at him.

"No," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"You seem nervous," I replied. "You're tapping your knee into submission."

"Is everything okay Bella?" he asked. I watched as he turned on his blinker and seconds later, turned into the shopping center.

"Yeah," I said. I wondered if Alice or Siobhan said anything to him.

"You would tell me if you need anything, or if the baby needs something, right?" He seemed unsure.

"Yes," I said. "The baby doesn't need anything Edward."

"It needs to eat," he pulls into a parking space and puts the shifter in park.

"What does that mean?" I pushed the eject button from the seat belt buckle and moved to open the door.

"How much does he owe you, Bella?" he asked.

"Who told you, Edward?" I countered.

"Does it matter?" he replied. "How much, Bella?"

"It matters because you could only learn it from one of two sources and that means either one broke doctor-patient confidentiality or the other broke the best friend creed, so who was it?"

"Neither," he replied. He got out of the car and walked around to my door. He opened it and helped me out.

"Then who?" I asked.

"Masen," he said. "Apparently, you mentioned it to your mom, who told your dad. Masen overheard."

"He hasn't paid child support in six months, and he hasn't paid alimony since our divorce became finalized. It wasn't a big deal until I missed so much work and had to use my savings to pay the bills."

"So this is my fault," Edward said, I look up to him, wondering what the hell he's talking about.

"No, it's not."

"It is. If I hadn't gotten you pregnant, you wouldn't have missed so much work, and be in this position. Let me help you Bella."

"How?" I asked.

"For starters, let's buy some damn food. I'm going to starve if we don't."

We spent the next hour and a half shopping for groceries. Edward didn't flinch when the grocery total was over $300 dollars. He wouldn't let me load anything into the car, and when we got back to my house, I watched as he and Masen unloaded all the bags and brought them in the house. I went through the bags and picked out everything for the party while they put everything else away.

"What can I help you with, Bells?" Masen asked after we had everything put away. Edward excused himself to use the rest room.

"Wanna help me put these snacks in bowls and cut up this fruit?"

"Sure," Masen had enjoyed helping me in the kitchen in the past.

"So," Masen says, opening the Cheetos bag and pouring it into a serving bowl. "I met Esme and Carlisle."

"And?" I ask. I don't want him disappointed with them.

"They're nice. Esme hugged me for about an hour. I felt a little smothered. Carlisle is less huggy—but very funny. He was making jokes almost the entire time we were together. They're a pretty great couple. And rich, did I mention that part?"

"I vaguely remember them being well-to-do," I had never been to Esme and Carlisle's house and Edward had only talked about them in passing. "I'm glad that you enjoyed the visit. Will you be spending more time with them?"

"Yeah," Masen grabbed a quart of strawberries and started washing them off, "Mom and Dad think that it's a good idea."

"It is," I agree. Even though I was initially in denial, it really was a good idea for him to get to know Esme and Carlisle. "So, you heard what I told Mom about Mike?"

"Yeah," Masen replied. I wait for a minute to see if he has anything else to say. Masen never really liked Mike, although I could never figure out why.

"He's an ass, Bells. He always has been."

"Watch you language, Masen. He's the father of my children. And they love him. And he's coming today, so don't say anything that can be repeated."

"He's gonna be here today?" Edward asked. I hadn't heard him come back into the kitchen; again he was utilizing his stealth mode.

"Yes, it is his son's party." I didn't really want Mike here, but again, I didn't want our children to miss out on their father.

"Hmpf," Edward said and walked out of the room. I had seen him unload his laptop earlier and I could only assume that he was working on work stuff.

Masen and I washed and cut the strawberries for the party. We didn't talk about Mike anymore. I think that we were both happy to not continue that conversation.

"So how's school going?" I asked Masen, throwing away the remnants of the strawberries.

"Good."

"And baseball?" I asked. He'd been playing since he was eight and he was pretty good.

"Season hasn't started yet, Bells, it's only February," Masen made a sound like I should know when baseball season starts. I don't. I've never been one for sports.

I see Edward out of the corner of my eye walk into the kitchen and put his laptop on the bar.

"Bella, what do you think of this?" He asked, pointing to something on his computer screen.

I walked over to him and looked at the computer screen. "That's not bad, what is it?"

"Getting a new car, Bella?" Masen asked, coming over to stand next to me, and taking a look at the computer screen.

"Yeah," I shrug nonchalantly and hope he doesn't ask why.

"You gonna sell yours?" He asked.

"Yeah," I replied. I wouldn't need two cars.

"Why?" I could always count on Masen to ask the questions that I didn't want asked.

"I need more room," I replied vaguely. "The kids are getting too big."

"It's a Volvo, The XC90 crossover. I looked at one when I bought my car. At the time, it was too big for what I needed, but now-," Edward speaks for the first time. I noticed that he had been watching our interaction in the kitchen.

"Oh really?" I said, looking at him, and trying to stop him from saying anything about the baby "It looks nice, and sporty, even though it holds seven people."

"I like it," Masen said, "it looks cool."

"We can go to the Volvo dealership later., there's one in Pantops." Referring to an area of Charlottesville, Pantops Mountain, that had a lot of car dealerships. I wasn't sure if he had been there before.

"Ok," Edward says, maneuvering off the Volvo page and going back to his work email. I moved away from the computer because I knew that Edward dealt with a lot of top secret things, and I didn't have the security clearance to see any of it.

"You need something bigger too," I said looking at him.

"I know. I think I'll get the same model, different color. . We can have a matching set."

"Is there something going on that I should know about?" Masen asked, looking back and forth between the two of us.

"No," we both say simultaneously.

"Uh huh," Masen replied. He knows that we are full of shit, but he has enough respect for me to not say anything else.

"When's the party start?" Joseph comes running into the living room and asks.

"About an hour," I replied.

"Is Daddy coming?" Joseph asked.

"He's supposed to," I replied.

I watched as he walked out of the room and I followed him up the stairs to Anthony's bedroom. I needed to start getting the kids ready for the party.

An hour and a half later we were all standing around Anthony singing Happy Birthday. Mike had yet to show up, but I went on with the party anyway. He knew what time the party started and he needed to make his kids a priority and show up when he was supposed to. I watched as Anthony blew out his birthday candles, and then swipe some of the icing. He looked so cute with an icing mustache. We were all having a great time. Alice and Jasper had come to the party, cake and present in hand. Alice was just starting to show and her little baby bump was really cute. We had also invited Siobhan and her husband, Al, who brought their three children with them.

I heard the doorbell ring and ran to open it. I was hoping that it was Mike.

It wasn't.

"I'm sorry we're late Bella," Rosalie McCarty said, rushing in with her two kids, and a man I assumed was her husband, in tow. "Emmett's game ran late. He was supposed to get out of basketball earlier, but there was some sort of confusion-" Rosalie blew some air out of her mouth, exasperated, her bangs raising slightly. "Anyway, we're here!"

"Bella," Rosalie said, "you've never met my husband, Emmett," Rosalie and I worked together, and our sons, Anthony and Billy, were friends from preschool.

"Emmett," I put my hand out to shake his and he shook it back. "Nice to meet you."

"McCarty?" I heard someone yell. I turned around to see Edward barreling towards us, he looked excited.

"Cullen?" I heard Emmett say. I couldn't believe that they knew each other.

I watched as they did a man hug and started talking.

"What are you doing in Charlottesville, man?" Edward asked.

"I live here dude. How'd you end up here?" Emmett replied.

"I work for the National Ground Intelligence Center. How 'bout you?"

"Football coach for Charlottesville High. I also teach Driver's Ed. What are you doing _here_?" Emmett asked. He looked like a football player, tall and muscular.

"Bella is my girlfriend," Edward answered. "It's her son's party."

"Small world," Emmett replied. He looked at Rosalie and I. We were a little lost as to how they knew each other. "Edward and I served together in Fallujah."

"So you're an ex-Marine too?" I asked Emmett.

"Bella," he said, looking at me with a grin on his face, "There's no such thing as an ex-Marine, we just go to Hell and regroup."

"Good to know," I said, laughing along with Emmett and Edward. They walked away, absorbed in conversation with each other and I started to collect dirty bowls, attempting to clean up a little. I carried the dirty bowls to the kitchen and was followed by Rosalie and Alice.

"Where's Mike?" Alice asked, filling her cup with tea.

"No clue, he said he was coming." I didn't know where Mike was. I couldn't imagine why he would miss his son's party. Even he wasn't _that_ bad of a father.

"So, Bella, what's up with you and Edward? I heard him introduce you as his girlfriend," Leave it to Alice to get right to the point.

"We're seeing each other," I promised Edward that I would wait until we were together to tell everyone about the pregnancy.

"Well, that's good." Rosalie says. I watched as Alice nudged Rosalie with her elbow and got a yucky feeling in my tummy.

"Are you pregnant?" Rosalie blurts out suddenly. I look at the two of them and then turn around to wash up a bowl. I wish they'd just drop it, but from the look on their faces it's not likely.

"You are, aren't you?" Alice says, coming to stand next to me.

I stand at the sink for a little bit, washing the dishes and gathering my thoughts. I can hear Alice tapping her foot, impatiently waiting for the answer to her question. I don't want to tell anyone without Edward standing next to me. I need his support.

"MOMMY," I heard my daughter yell. I turned and ran towards the living room. I found Edward pinning Masen to the wall and Emmett holding Mike back.

"What is going on here?" I ask, looking back and forth between the four of them.

"He hit me," Mike screams from behind Emmett.

"Who hit you?" I ask, still not sure what is going on.

"That bastard child of yours," Mike spews forth from his mouth.

"Masen, did you hit him?" I ask, looking at Masen, still straining to get out from behind Edward.

"Yup," Masen replies, "and I'll do it again. Asshole had it coming."

"Language," I say, yelling at Masen. "Mike, get out of my house. Now," I watch as Emmett helps Mike to his feet and then escorts him to my door.

"You can't throw me out, Bells. It's my house too." Mike is standing on the threshold, trying to get back in, but Emmett wasn't letting him back in.

"No, Mike. It's my house. My name is on the deed. Not yours. Remember? You lost it in the divorce. Just like you lost me and the kids. Get out of my house. Before I call the police and have you arrested for child abuse." I turned around on my heels and headed straight for Edward. I heard the door close behind me and knew that Emmett had removed Mike from my house.

"Well," I say, looking at everyone that is staring at me, speechless. "Sorry about that everyone. Masen are you ok?"

"Yes, Bells." Masen replies, walking over to me and putting his arm around my shoulder.

"I'm sorry to make a scene, Bella." He says into my ear.

"What happened?" I ask.

"I'll tell you later," Edward replies. Again I didn't hear him walk up besides me.

I looked at my three children, afraid of what there reaction will be. Anthony was playing on the floor with Rose's boy, Abbigail was playing with her dollies, and Joseph was playing with his DS. They didn't seem phased by the scene that had just played out in front of them.

I felt Edward lean into me. "We should tell them," he says, as he puts his hand to the small of my back again. I have to forgive him, I think to myself. He's forgiven me for everything, and I'm still kinda being mean to him. I liked feeling his hands on me. It was nice.

"We should tell the kids first," I whisper back to him.

"What are you guys whispering about?" Alice interrupts us and we pull ourselves away from each other to look at the small group of friends gathered around us.

"Bella and I are having a baby," Edward blurts out.

"You're pregnant?" Alice asks, looking at my abdomen. "I knew it!"

"Wow, Bells," Masen says.

"Is it a girl? I want a 'ister Mommy. I don't want anofher brahther," Abbigail says.

"Why?" Joseph asks, standing up and stomping up the stairs.

"Congrats," Rosalie says, hugging me. I watch as Emmett and Edward fistbump.

"We don't know what it is yet, Abbigail," I hear Edward tell her.

"When are you due?" Alice asks.

"September," I reply.

"Well congrats, Bella," Alice said and pulled me into a hug.

Several hours later after everyone had left, Edward and I were sitting in my living room. Masen was upstairs, he'd decided to stay here after all. Edward would be staying too. He was afraid that Mike would come back, and since it was a weekend, we couldn't get the locks changed. I'd given Mike a new key a few weeks ago when I got sick.

"You ready to do this?" Edward asked, looking at me.

"No," I replied. We were getting ready to call my parents and break the news.

"Can we call yours first?" I asked, looking up at his emerald green eyes.

"If you want," Edward replied. I watched as he picked his phone up and pushed a single button. He put it on speaker phone and I listened to it ring.

"Hello," I heard his mother answer.

"Hi, Mom," Edward replied.

"Dear, how's everything going with Masen?" Esme asked.

"Great. He's a great kid," Edward replied.

"I knew that you would like him."

"Mom, can you get Dad? I have to tell you both something," Esme said 'hold on' and Edward leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He'd been doing little things like that all day. A touch here, a kiss there. I liked his touch. . A few minutes later, I heard Esme pick the receiver back up.

"We're both here."

"You should know that I have you on speaker, and that Bella is here with me," Edward spoke into his phone, now sitting on the table.

"Hi Bella," I heard Carlisle say.

"Hi," I replied.

"So what's the big news?" Esme asked.

"Bella is pregnant."

Silence. Utter and complete silence, on both ends. I could hear someone on the other line breathing.

"Say something," Edward speaks first. I took a deep breath, not realizing that I had been holding it.

"Congratulations, son!" Carlisle speaks. Esme is quiet. I'm scared of what she's going to say.

"It's nice of you to let us know," Esme speaks finally. "Will we be meeting this one when he's thirteen too?"

"Esme!" I hear Carlisle admonish.

"No, it's ok," I say, "I deserve that."

"Mom," Edward said, "Bella and I are together."

"For now," she said. "Until she leaves again."

I see Edward pick up his phone and click off the speaker phone. He walks out of the room and into the kitchen. I don't follow him. He needs to speak to his parents in private. I hope that the conversation with my parents will go a little smoother. But I don't think I'll be that lucky. About ten minutes later, he returns. He doesn't say anything and I don't probe.

"You ready to call yours?" He asks, handing me his phone.

"No," I say. "My father is going to kill me."

"Bella, your thirty-two years old. He has no say over what you do."

"Uh huh," I pick up his phone and dial my parents house. I can feel a lump forming in my throat. This is not going to be an easy conversation.

"Hello?" my mother questions. She doesn't recognize the number.

"Hey mom," I said. I can feel myself starting to sweat. My palms are wet and the small of my back is moist.

"Where are you calling from?" My mother asked. "Is Masen okay?"

"Masen is fine. He's upstairs with the kids. I'm calling from Edward's phone."

"Oh, can he hear me?"

"Yes, I can, Mrs. Swan," Edward interrupts.

"Hello Edward," she replied. "So, Isabella, why do you have me on speaker phone?"

"We have something to tell you," I replied. She was not going to be happy.

"Are you pregnant?" She asked. How the hell did she know I wondered? Had Esme and Carlisle called?

"Yes," I replied. "How did you know?"

"I figured, since you and Edward were calling together. Why else would the two of you be on the phone? And the way you've been sick recently, it was just a matter of you confirming it," my mother explained.

"Will you be getting married?" she continues.

"No," I replied. I saw Edward turn his head towards me with a questioning look on his face. He obviously doesn't like my answer.

"Not right away," I amended.

"Is he moving in?" she asked. "I won't have you living in sin." I rolled my eyes at the phone and stifled a laugh. My mother was always overly dramatic.

"No," I replied. "But, if I wanted him to move into _my_ house, I would ask him. It's 2011, Mom. People live together all the time."

"What are the kids going to say?" she asked.

"Joseph is upset, Abbi wants a sister and Anthony didn't say anything. Masen just said 'cool'."

"And Mike?" My mother had always hoped that I would get back together with him. She was fond of telling people her daughter married a doctor.

"Mike and I are divorced," I said, for the millionth time. "And we will not be getting back together. He hit Abbi a while ago and he and Masen got into a-" I stopped myself in time.

"What happened to Masen?" my mother asked.

"Nothing," I replied.

"Isabella, what happened to my son," my mother asked again.

"He's my son," I said. "And Mike said something obnoxious and Masen defended me."

"He's my son, legally, and I will worry about him until he comes home." She paused to drive the point home.

"Well, I guess congratulations are in order. Let me get your father. I'm not going to be the one to tell him."

I waited a few minutes for my father to come to the phone. I was afraid of what he was going to say, and if my mother had said anything to him.

"Bells," my father answered.

"Daddy," I replied. I always called him Daddy when I wanted to tell him something I was uncomfortable with.

"What's up?" I could practically see my father's bushy mustache twitching.

"I'm pregnant."

"By?" my father asked.

"Edward," I replied.

"Isabella Marie," my father raised his voice, just slightly.

"Charles, don't call me that," I replied.

"Stop acting like an irresponsible seventeen year old." Score one for Dad.

"Is he planning on staying this time?"

"Yes, sir, I am." Edward speaks, finally. "I would've stayed the last time if anyone had bothered to tell me." I cringed at the way Edward's words sounded. If he could blow fire out his mouth, I'm sure that he would.

"Oh," my father spews, "you're there."

"Yes, I am." I watched as Edward stood up and started pacing in front of the table. "And I'm not going anywhere, ever again."


	18. Someone has some 'splainin to do

**A/N: Thank you to my Beta, Lila, for all her help. This chapter looks a whole lot better because of her. And to Carol, my pre-reader, who's son is ill. I hope he feels better soon.**

**Please see below for a little game that I have for everyone.**

Shattered Perfection

Chapter 18: Someone has some 'splainin' to do.

Edward (18 weeks into pregnancy)

Saturday

I was sound asleep and dreaming of our baby. He had brown hair and brown eyes and looked just like Bella. He smiled at me and giggled. I picked him up and held him in my arms. I found it strange that he was poking me. And then I realized that someone _was_ poking me.

"Edward," I heard a voice, pulling me from my dream and again, the poking. I was warm underneath the covers and my arms were wrapped around Bella's rapidly expanding abdomen. I had spent the night. It was something that was happening more and more often. I usually snuck out early in the morning, before her kids woke up, but today was Saturday and we planned on taking the kids out to the indoor fun gym, after breakfast, of course.

"Edward, your phone," I heard again. I put a light kiss to Bella's head and palmed her breast.

"They'll call back," I replied. I started to kiss her shoulder, hoping to get her back in the mood before the kids woke up. I knew that she had been horny a lot recently, and according to her pregnancy books, this was a normal thing for pregnant women in the second trimester.

"What if it's work?" she replied.

"Fuck, your right." I cracked my eyes open and reached to the night stand for my phone.

"Cullen," I said, finding the phone button and speaking.

"Eddie," a voice I hadn't heard in months came over the phone.

"Why are you calling me at," I turn to look at the clock, "seven am on a Saturday morning?"

"I miss you. I'm in town," Tanya replied.

"Your here, in Charlottesville?" I swallowed, trying to moisten my mouth. I hated cotton mouth early in the morning.

"Yup," she replied. "Only for a few hours. I'm headed to Florida. With Ben."

"What do you want?" I was suspicious. Tanya always wanted something. And I wanted nothing to do with her. At all.

"I just need to chat, for a few minutes. I have a few things I need to tell you. We're at the Pancake House. Can you come and see us?"

"No," I replied. "I'm busy." I hung the phone up and put it on the night stand. I put my arms around Bella's stomach, and pulled her close to me.

"Who was it?" I heard her ask.

"Tonya," I replied. I started to kiss her hair and rub her stomach.

"What did she want?" she asked.

"To meet. She's in town." I moved her nightie up and started to play with her breasts.

"Why is she here?" she asked. "Edward wait a minute. Why is she here?"

"I don't know," I replied. I really wanted to make love to Bella, and she was making this difficult.

"Maybe she has something important to tell you," Bella said.

"She has nothing important to say. She's just playing with me," I replied.

"Where is she?" Bella asked. I stopped. I knew that I was not going to win this discussion. "I want to meet the bitch that fucked everything up years ago." Bella got up and pulled on some clothes. She brushed her hair and headed out of the room, "get dressed," she said over her shoulder, "and call Tonya. Tell her we'll be there in under an hour."

Twenty-five minutes later, we had all the children dressed and loaded in the car and we were headed for the Pancake House. I pulled into the parking lot and helped Bella unload the children. We walked into the restaurant and I saw Tonya immediately.

"Edward," she said, standing up to greet me. I shook her hand, not wanting to hug her, and then shook Ben's hand. I had to thank him later for finally taking her off my hands.

"This is my girlfriend, Bella," I put my arm around Bella's shoulders, and pull her close to me.

"It's nice to meet you," Tonya replies. She reaches over to shake Bella's hand, and Bella reciprocates, but doesn't seem happy to be touching her. "And these are?" She tilts her head in the direction of Bella's children.

"My children. Joseph, Abbigail and Anthony." Suddenly, the pager Tonya was holding started to buzz and I watched Ben go up to the server and turn the pager in. "Follow me," the server said. We followed the teenaged girl through the restaurant, and stopped at a large table.

"Here ya go," she said, handing out menus to the adults, and giving kid menus to the children, along with crayons.

"You guys ready to order?" The waitress asks.

I look at my menu and order something quickly. I hear Bella order something for herself and the kids and then Tonya and Ben take their turns.

"How old are you kids?" Tonya asked Bella.

"Joseph is eight. Abbigail is four and Anthony is 2." Bella replied.

"So what do you do?" Tonya seemed to be interrogating Bella.

"I'm a teacher. I teach high school English," Bella replied again.

"Ben," I interjected. I felt bad for making Bella and Tonya do all the talking. "You still in the Army?"

"Yeah," he replied. I wasn't sure how old Ben was, but I was pretty sure that he was younger than Tonya by a few years. "We're being relocated to Florida. That's why we're driving through."

The waitress walked up to our table with a giant tray and sat it on top of a stand. She started passing out plates, feeding the women and children first.

Bella cut up Anthony's food and put it in front of him, and then helped Abbi cut up her food. We all sat quietly cutting and chewing our food for several minutes.

"Do you go to school Abbi?" Ben asked, after he was done eating his pancakes.

"No," Abbi replied. "But my mommy said after she has the baby, I get to go to school."

"You're pregnant?" Tonya nods towards Bella's belly and I can't help but reply.

"Yes, she is." I replied.

"Me too," Tonya replies.

"You're pregnant?" I ask. "How?"

"Do I really need to explain that to you, Edward?" I hated Tonya. She was such a stupid bitch.

"You know what I mean," I say through clenched teeth.

"I stopped taking my birth control and voila, pregnant," Tonya replied.

"When did you start taking birth control?" I asked. I was seething and I could tell that Bella was upset. She was squeezing the crap out of my hand.

"Fourteen years ago," she replied. Fourteen years ago? I think to myself. That means that she's been taking them the entire time we were married? She best start explaining what she's talking about. I don't hit women, especially pregnant ones, but I bet Bella will.

"So, you've been on it this entire time?" Bella asks.

"Until I decided I wanted to have Ben's baby," Tonya picked up her cup of juice that the waitress had just put down in front of her.

"So, you were on birth control the entire time you were married to Edward?" Bella reiterated.

"Mommy," Abbi interjected, "what's birth control?"

"I'll tell you when you get older," Bella answered.

"Yes, I was," Tonya replied to Bella's question.

"Why? Edward thought he couldn't have kids when he was with you," Bella looked at me and took her lip between her teeth. She looked pissed.

"That's not true. I just didn't want to have kids with him. I actually had to have an abor-"

"You fucking bitch," I heard Bella say under her breath. "You knew all this time and you didn't tell him. Get up children, we're leaving." Bella stood up and grabbed Anthony out of the highchair and started towards the entrance of the restaurant. She stopped, turned around and handed Anthony to me.

"Listen here, Tonya. You're a horrible, horrible woman. You fucked with Edward's life, and my life, for fourteen years. You lied to me on the phone all those years ago; you killed something that you and Edward made. Something that Edward wanted and you have the audacity to come out here, pregnant, and then throw it in Edwards face? Leave now. We don't ever want to see you again. Edward has everything that he could want. A baby, a family, and me." Bella turned around and headed back towards the exit, Tonya just staring at her, stunned. She walked past me and grabbed Abbi and Joseph's hands and exited the restaurant.

"Damn," I said, getting in the driver's seat after securing Anthony into his car seat.

"She's a bitch," Bella said. "What the hell did you ever see in her?"

"I don't know," I replied, "but none of that is important anymore." I leaned over and kissed her on the lips.

I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. Tonya had been taking birth control all these years. She'd had an abortion, even after she knew how much I wanted kids. And then she didn't bother to tell me that she was on birth control, after getting injured in Iraq and thinking that I was unable to father children. That fucking bitch. I realized at that point just how fucked up Tonya was, and how stupid I was for staying with her for so long. And how thankful I was that I had Bella back in my life.

*********************************SP**********************************************

Sunday

"Can I get you some coffee, Mr. Cullen?" Aro, the Volvo dealership manager asked me.

"Yes, thank you." I'd met him previously when I bought my first Volvo from him several months ago.

"Cream and sugar?" He asked.

"Black," I replied. When I had been in the military, cream and sugar were a luxury that we were frequently not afforded and I was used to drinking it plain by now.

"We have croissants and danish as well, would either you," he looked towards me and then motioned his head towards Bella, "or Mrs. Cullen be interested in a snack while you're waiting?"

"It's Newton," Bella said "Ms Newton." I shudder at hearing those words coming out of her mouth. I hate the thought that Bella still has that name, but there's nothing that I can do about it. She won't even talk about changing it, at least not right now.

"Right, Miss Newton," Aro turns to her, "Croissant or danish?"

"A Danish would be nice, thank you," she replied. I watched as Aro left the room, assumedly to get Bella's danish and my coffee.

"So, Miss Newton," the salesman, James, looked up at Bella. "We're trading in your 2008 Mercedes-Benz SUV as part of this transaction," he looked up again, and smiles at Bella. I could hit him for smiling at Bella, we're obviously together and here he is flirting. Jerk. Bella looked over at me, and it seemed like she was suddenly unsure of her decision. We had talked about this for a while, she needed a bigger car, her Mercedes-Benz was a nice trade in and then we'd have one of our problems, car size, taken care of.

"Yes," I replied, trying to take James's eyes off Bella.

I watched as he did some calculations on his computer. Finally, he pulls out a piece of paper and scribbles a number down and then slides it across his desk.

I pick the piece of paper up and look at the figure before me. It's not a bad price for two brand new Volvos.

"I'm trading mine in too," I replied, and pushed the scrap of paper back towards him.

"Oh, all your information is in the computer Mr. Cullen, I'll just look at what you've got," I watch as he fiddles with his computer and makes a few more calculations. Again, he slides the paper across his desk.

I pick up the paper and look at the number he's written on it.

"That's the cash price?" I asked. James just looks at me for a minute, his mouth agape, not sure what to say.

"Edward-" I heard Bella gasp. She hasn't seen the paper, but I'm sure that she can imagine what the number is based on how much two brand new Volvo's cost.

"Cash price?" James repeated. He looked at me like he honestly doesn't have a clue. "You wanna pay cash?" He asked, looking at me again.

"Yes," I replied. "Cash, you know, those green pieces of fabric that have pictures of dead presidents and conspiracy theories all over them?"

"I know what cash is, sir," James said. "I've just never had anyone ask. But I've only been here a few weeks."

"Go get Aro, he helped me last time," at that moment I turned around to find Aro coming back to us, a coffee cup in one hand and a plate of danish in the other.

"Aro," James said, Aro hands me my coffee and then hands Bella her danish. "Can I talk to you for a minute," James stood up and pulled Aro into another office.

"Edward," Bella finally speaks, "how do you have that much money?" I don't want to answer that right now, so I chose to tell Bella to now worry about it, I'll tell her later.

"You'll be paying in cash again, Mr. Cullen?" Aro asks after conferencing with James for a few minutes.

"Yup," I say, enunciating the p.

"We've shaved $25,000 off the price, I hope that's acceptable," I nodded my head at Aro and he retreats from James's desk, we sit there for a few minutes longer until the transactions is done.

"You can keep your cars until these come in," James handed us our car keys back.

"You mean they're not here?" Bella asked. Looking kind of confused.

"No, they've been ordered," James replied. "We don't keep cars with that many features on the lot."

Bella just looked at me for a minute but didn't say anything.

"When will they be here?" I heard her ask.

"Next week," James replied.

"Upon final delivery, you can bring the cashier's check in and we'll take your trade-ins and you can drive your new cars home," James and I stood up and I shook his hand.

"See you next week," I said over my shoulder. Bella and I get in our respective vehicles and drive back to her place.

She pulled in her driveway and I parked behind her. She got out of the car and walks into the house, me following behind.

"Explain, right now," is all she said. She seemed a little pissed.

"Inheritance," I replied.

"And you want to spend it all on new cars?" her voice is a little loud and high pitched.

"I'm not spending it all," I replied. "Just a little."

"Those cars have to be at least $100,000. You're telling me you're just going to go to the bank and get a check for $100,000?"

"Yup," I replied. I go over to her and take her hands into mine. "It's not a big deal," I stressed the not part.

"It is," I took her hands up to my lips and kissed them.

"It's not," I replied, kissing her on her lips. I loved kissing Bella. I put her hands down and moved behind her, to hug her baby bump. I ran my fingers over her stomach, hoping that I could feel the little thing kick.

"You know, tomorrow, we can find out what 'little thing' is," Bella said.

"I know," is all I replied. "We should look into houses now."

"It'll be a while before we need the room," Bella said, she placed her hands over mine and I put my lips to her neck.

"I think that we should build. That way we don't have to wait for people to move out."

"Building takes a while," Bella replied.

"Not really, it just depends. They could be done in six months. I'll look into it."

"The kids will be back soon," she said. Bella had dropped the kids off at Mike's house before we left for the car dealership. Mike didn't think he could handle them for more than a few hours, and since he'd started paying his child support again, Bella had let them visit.

"I know," I kissed her again, this time more deeply. I moved my hand up to cup her head, pulling her into me. I felt her body relax and she put her arms around my shoulders. I continued to kiss her, she allowed my tongue to sneak into her mouth and I felt her tongue reciprocate. She tasted like strawberries.

"I'm so horny," Bella said. "Let's go upstairs."

*************************************SP******************************************

Monday

"Do you have a preference?" We were sitting in the doctor's office. Today was the day of Bella's ultrasound and we were discussing the pros and cons of finding out the sex.

"I don't care what we have, as long as it's healthy," Bella replied. She had her hands resting on her abdomen, making small little circles with her hands. I laid my hand on her thigh gently, and then moved it up to her stomach. I so wanted to feel the baby move, but as of yet, I haven't had the opportunity.

"I want to know," I did want to know. I wanted it to be healthy as well, but I really wanted to know what we were having. It would just make it easier to plan for.

"I've done both," she replied. "I didn't know with the first one—er, um, Joseph, but with Abbi and Anthony we knew ahead of time. It was a lot easier to plan with Abbs and Anthony. With Joseph, we bought a bunch of yellow and green, and then after he was born, we bought boy clothes."

"I'd like to know," I reiterated.

"Then we'll find out," she replied.

"Have you thought anymore about the house thing?" I didn't want to bug Bella about moving in together, but I couldn't see us sharing a baby between two houses, it just didn't sound feasible.

"After school's out. It would be hard moving the kids during the school year."

"So, that's a yes?" I asked again. I just wanted to make sure I was hearing her correctly.

"Um, yeah. We should um, start looking though." She pulled her hands together and started wringing them like a dish towel. I didn't know what was wrong, every time I brought up moving in together, she got this way. I didn't want to force her into it, but I couldn't see any other solution.

"Mrs. Newton," the nurse called from the door of the waiting room. "Follow me," she said, motioning us back to an exam room. I hated that name. And every time someone said it, I just got more pissed about it.

"If you'll get up on the table for me, and pull your shirt up, we can get started with the ultrasound."

I watched as Bella climbed up on the table and pulled her shirt up and shimmied her pants down a bit. The ultrasound lady tucked a little white cloth into her pants and then tucked another one into her shirt. She took a bottle of the counter and squeezed some onto Bella's belly.

"Oh that's warm," Bella said.

"It came from the warmer," the ultrasound lady replied.

"OK, now. Do we want to know the sex or not?" she asked, looking towards both of us. I had taken my place next to Bella, so I could see the screen, and hold her hand.

"We want to know," Bella said. I'm glad that she made that decision.

She moved the wand around Bella's belly, looking at various parts of the baby's body. She would occasionally point out a foot, arm or leg. I was fascinated when we got to the heart to see all the little parts. It was so cool. I'd never seen anything like it.

"Ok, it looks like," the woman paused for a minute, I think for dramatic effect, "a girl."

"Congratulations. You're having a girl."

**There are two 'games' that I have for everyone.**

**The first is recommendations for names for baby girl Cullen. Please leave them in a review. **

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**Go to my profile to vote!**

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	19. Lightning Crashes

A/N: I don't own Twilight. I'm sorry for this long delay. My mother died suddenly and expected and I've been thrown in the middle of settling her estate.

Special thanks to my Beta, Lila. I sent this to her and she sent it straight back to me.

You will notice that we have jumped ten weeks in time to Bella being 32 weeks pregnant. This is the last chapter before the Epilogue, which I'm working on now. You should get out your tissue now. Go ahead, get them, Bella and Edward will wait.

Lightning Crashes

By Live

lightning crashes, a new mother cries  
her placenta falls to the floor  
the angel opens her eyes  
the confusion sets in  
before the doctor can even close the door

lightning crashes, an old mother dies  
her intentions fall to the floor  
the angel closes her eyes  
the confusion that was hers  
belongs now, to the baby down the hall

oh now feel it comin' back again  
like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind  
forces pullin' from the center of the earth again  
I can feel it.

lightning crashes, a new mother cries  
this moment she's been waiting for  
the angel opens her eyes  
pale blue colored iris,  
presents the circle  
and puts the glory out to hide, hide

Chapter 19

Thirty-two weeks pregnant

Bella POV

"Is that her?" I heard Edward ask, we were spooning in bed, his hand lying on swollen abdomen, trying to feel our little girl, Elisabeth, kick.

"Yes," I replied, relaxing back into his well-muscled chest.

"That's so cool," he kept his hand pressed to my abdomen, feeling what I thought was a foot, pressing against his hand. Our little girl was a gymnast already. "What are your plans for the day?"

"Well, since summer school is only a half-day today I was thinking about getting a pedicure before I went to pick Masen up."

"Are you sure you want to battle rush-hour traffic to pick him up? I can pick him up. It's right on the way from work, it won't be a problem."

"I don't want him waiting at the airport until you get off, and I don't want you to have to leave work early."

"I'll call you about it later. Maybe he can get a taxi to NGIC, and hang out with me at work. It would be cool to show him what I do."

"Maybe," I knew that Edward was excited that our son was coming to spend the summer with him. We decided to let him decide who he wanted to live with now that he knew the truth. Technically, he was only coming for the summer, but if he liked it, he could enroll in school here and stay until graduation. My parents agreed after a little arm twisting. But I don't think that they were happy at all with the decision. We were working on custody, but that situation was a little stickier.

"We need to get up. I have to drop the kids off at camp and daycare and get to school. I can't be late on a half-day. That would look bad."

I got out of bed and waddled my way over to the closest. Since we hadn't found a house yet, Edward had moved in with me last month. It was the best thing to do at this point. I slipped on a pair of my Old Navy Maternity khaki's and a short-sleeved shirt and threw my hair into a pony tail. I was going to have to cut it soon; it was getting way too long.

"You want me to get Abbigail or Anthony ready first?" I heard him ask from behind me. He kissed the sensitive spot between my shoulder and my earlobe and I shuddered.

"Anthony, he needs to wear swim trunks. They're going to ACAC to swim today. "

"Cool," I heard the door to the room click closed and looked around for my sandals. In our haste to get into bed yesterday, I had misplaced them.

_12 Hours Previously_

"I am so hot and tired," I said, turning on the fan that was a constant companion and holding it up to my face.

"You should take more clothes off," he said. He took the fan out of my hands and placed it on the dresser. He slowly unbuttoned my shirt and took it off my shoulders. "That any better?"

"Yes," I replied. I loved the way his hands felt on my body.

"We should take this off too," he said, feeling along my spine for the snap closure of my bra.

"I've always loved your boobs Bella, but wow, now they're amazing." He took off the bra and threw it to the floor, taking one of my swollen breasts into his mouth. I felt my body shudder.

"The kids," I whisper, afraid we'd be interrupted and not able to finish.

"They're all asleep, or in their rooms." He replied.

"Fantastic," I lowered my hand to the button on his shorts and undid them. I felt him step out of them as he took his lips off my breast and shucked his shirt off. As soon as his shirt was off, he reattached his lips to my breasts, alternating between the two of them, but giving them both equal attention. I pushed my shorts down and stepped out of them, eager to continue.

"I love you Bella," he had been telling me that for a while now, around the time I suggested he move in.

"I love you too, Edward. I always have," I knew now that I had settled for Mike and that if Edward had come back into my life when I was still married, I wouldn't have been for much longer. He was always the man that I wanted. I was stupid to ignore that for so long. But that was all in the past, I had him now and that's all that mattered.

He backed me up to the bed, it wouldn't take long for me to climax, I could already feel the heated sensation deep down start to stir. I flipped myself over and got on my hands and knees. Edward didn't like lying on top of the baby, and I liked the depth he got in this position.

He pushed into me slowly, rhythmically pushing and pulling back and forth. He felt for my breast and started to squeeze and massage them.

"Oh god," I said, trying to control the level of my voice. I didn't want to wake my sleeping children up.

"Not god, Bella, Edward. My name is Edward," he said jokingly. He always said that when I called for god.

"Does that feel good, love?"

"Yes," I replied. It was all I could get out. He started to go faster and I felt his hand reach around to massage my clit.

"Fuck," I said, this time not as quiet.

"I prefer to call it 'making love', dear," he was such a smartass. But I loved him for it.

"Ung," I was standing at the top of the mountain and was about to fall off.

He slowed down and took his cock out then slowly lowered himself back in; it was torture and pleasure.

"You like that love," he pushed into me again and this time I felt it in my toes. He pressed my clit again and my body erupted; tingling sensations everywhere. I felt his seed squirt into me, coating every part of my body. It felt so good to have him there, fully sheathed in me.

"Holy fuck," I said again. "That was—," I couldn't really say anything else before he had his lips on my shoulder, kissing me again.

"We should get you into bed, it's late. The baby needs rest." He slowly turned me over and laid down behind me, his hands splayed across my belly. It was his favorite way to relax. And I enjoyed it too.

_Afternoon_

"Mase!" I yelled across the crowded airport. I wasn't sure if he could hear or see me, but I was hoping that my voice carried. He looked in my direction and headed towards me.

"Bells," he said, leaning over my belly to hug me. "Ow," he said, "she kicked me."

"She does that to everyone." He loped his arm over my shoulders and we headed off to baggage claim.

After collecting Masen's luggage we headed to my car to get home. I buckled my seatbelt and pulled out of the parking space, heading to Route 29, the main road I needed to access to get home.

I pulled out, after looking both ways and merged into lunch time traffic.

"So Mase-" BAM.

EPOV

"Edward Cullen," I answered my cell phone as I was headed back from lunch. I didn't bother to look at the caller ID. I didn't think that it would be Bella yet; she and Masen were going to run some errands before heading back to the house.

"Mr. Cullen, this is Dr. Smith. I'm calling from UVA Medical Center. Your wife has been in an accident. We need you to come to the hospital. As soon as possible."

"Is she ok? Is the baby ok? What happened? Where's Masen?"

"She was in an accident. We need you to come to the hospital, sir." I was clutching the phone so tight that my knuckles were completely white. I walked into my office to find Jasper.

"Hey man, what's wrong?" He was staring at me, I must've looked stunned.

"Bella's been in an accident. She's at UVA I need you to drive me."

"Sure," As he stood, he grabbed his keys and his phone and locked our office door. We drove in silence to the UVA Hospital and I leapt out of the car before Jasper had slowed to a complete stop.

"Can I help you sir?" the attendant at the front desk asked.

"Isabella Newton."

"I don't have a 'Newton' listed, sir."

"The doctor called me, told me she was here." And then it hit me that the doctor had said 'your wife'.

"I'm sorry, try Isabella Cullen," I watched as the women typed a few keystrokes on her computer.

"She's in surgery sir. I can get the doctor to come out and talk to you."

"How about my son, Masen Swan?"

"We have him listed as Masen Cullen, he came in with your wife. He's in the back. I'll have security escort you."

Just then Jasper walked in, and security came to escort us back. They took us to a room that was hidden by a large curtain. The first thing I saw was Masen, secured to a board with a collar around his neck. He seemed to be sleeping. And then I noticed the blood.

It was everywhere.

And that's when I noticed the other bed.

The bed covered in blood.

The bed that had Bella's clothes stuffed underneath it.

Where the hell was Bella?

"Mr. Cullen?" I heard a male voice say. I turned around and was greeted by an older man wearing a long white coat.

"I'm Dr. Smith; I believe we spoke on the phone."

"Where's Bella?" I asked.

"Surgery," he replied.

"And my son?"

"Sleeping, we had to sedate him."

"What happened?" I asked.

"We don't really know. Witnesses said that the other car didn't see her and pulled right out. She got the brunt of the impact. She hit the steering wheel hard If the airbag hadn't deployed, she'd be dead. She's lucky. It could've been much, much worse. You son tried to get her out but she was pinned. He called 911. He doesn't appear to have any major injuries. He was very upset though."

"And the baby?" I asked. I wasn't sure that I wanted to know the answer.

"Last I checked, the baby was still alive. But—"

"But what?" I interrupted the doctor.

"There is a very good possibility that the baby won't make it."

"What?" I asked, stunned. How the hell did that all go so wrong.

"Is Siobhan here? Siobhan Dunnavant, Bella's doctor?"

"She's in with Bella."

"Excuse me sir," Jasper said, finally speaking. "What kind of surgery is Bella having?"

"She had to have an emergency C-section. When she hit the steering wheel, it made the placenta pull away, causing an abruption."

"It's too early," I whispered, mainly to myself.

"Edward," I heard a voice say and I realized that Masen was awake.

"Mase," I said, walking over to him and grabbing his hand.

"I'm sorry," Masen said looking over at me.

"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault." I reassured him. It wasn't his fault that some idiot had hit Bella.

"I couldn't stop the bleeding. I tried. I really tried." I heard something above me binging and turned to look at the heart monitor sitting above his head, apparently the binging was his heart rate.

"Don't cry, son. You'll get yourself all worked up."

"Calm down, she's gonna be ok. There both gonna be ok. You did great. You called 911 and got help. Now, are you hurt?"

"Not really. My whole body hurts, my neck hurts, but nothing is injured, at least they said nothing was injured."

"Edward, I'm going to call Alice and see if she and Rosalie can pick up the kids," Jasper was pushing buttons on his phone.

"Thanks Jas," I turned back around to my son and just sat there. We talked for what seemed like hours about everything except Bella and the baby. I called both of our parents. They both agreed to come out to Virginia to help with the kids, and Bella and the baby.

Four hours after we arrived at the hospital, Siobhan finally came to the pediatrics floor, where they had moved Masen, to update us on Bella.

"Edward," she said. She looked tired and I could see small drops of blood on her shoes and pants.

"Siobhan," I replied. I didn't know what else to say. I needed answers. I had to know what the hell was going on.

"Let's go sit," I followed her wordlessly down the hallway and walked into a small room with her. I had a bad feeling in the bottom of my stomach. Small rooms like this were always bad news.

"Let's start with Bella," she said quietly. "When the accident happened she hit the steering wheel, causing a condition called 'Abruptio Placentae'. Essentially, that means the placenta separated from the uterus and caused bleeding. The placenta is what 'feeds' the baby during pregnancy and provides oxygenation. Abruptio is a life-threatening condition that is very, very hard to fix, given the best circumstances."

I took a deep breath. I could feel the tears threatening at the corners of my eyes.

"I did an emergency C-section and got the baby out. And then I couldn't get the bleeding to stop, Bella developed a condition called DIC. It's where you bleed all over. I had to do an emergency hysterectomy; it was the only thing that could save her. She lost a lot of blood. We had to give her several units of blood. Edward, I tried, I tried so hard to keep from doing the hysterectomy, but it couldn't be avoided. She would've died. She could still."

"She's alive?" I asked. I was sure Siobhan was trying to prepare me for my Bella's death.

"Yes. She's still very sick Edward. It's touch and go. I had to put a tube down her throat to help her breath. She's on a ventilator. She still needs lots of IV fluids and blood. She's not out of the woods yet."

"And the baby?"

"Bella was 32 weeks, Edward and fetuses usually don't survive with abruptio placentae because of the sudden lack of oxygen in the womb. With that being said, the EMS providers got her here quickly, recognized what the issue was and were able to alert the ER that she would have to go to the OR. I was here and waiting when they pulled in. She was in the OR within fifteen minutes of arrival. She's small, only 4lbs, but she's a fighter. We had to intubate her to help with her breathing because of her small lungs, but I think she's going to be ok. She's cute. She looks a lot like you. Full head of red hair. You should go see her."

"She's ok?" I asked. I couldn't believe that they were both ok.

"She's small, premature and will have a long road ahead of her. But I think that overall, she will be ok. Do you want to see her?"

"Absolutely," I replied.


	20. Epilogue

Shattered Perfection, Chapter 20, Epilogue

June 2012

"Bella, you're going to be late to your own wedding," my mother was pounding on the door; I was hyperventilating, trying to get ready.

I was getting married, again. And this time, I was completely and without reserve ready. My breasts however, were not.

You see, I had planned to stop breastfeeding a month ago. But our daughter, Elisabeth, didn't want anything to do with that. She refused the bottle. Refused a cup, refused formula. She would only breast feed.

Thus my problem.

I was leaking. Alice had been in here a few minutes ago with her son, Tucker, and he had cried. Thus making me leak. On my wedding dress.

"Fuckin' A," I said, pushing the breast pad into my dress, covering my nipples and hoping that I didn't leak during the ceremony.

"Mom?" I heard through the door. It was Masen. He started calling me Mom after the accident. A lot had changed after the accident.

I proposed to Edward. Untraditional, I know. But the accident made me realize just how much I loved him. How much I could never live without him.

We petitioned the court, and won, custody of our son. He now lived with us, Edward and me, on our land in Albemarle County.

We'd moved. Built a big house with enough rooms that the kids didn't have to share, Joseph had finally decided that he liked Edward, and now they were like best buddies.

I quit my job. I just couldn't go back after the baby was born. I loved being home with the kids too much. Edward didn't mind, it was his idea after all.

"I'm coming," I said, heading to the door.

"Wow," Masen said as I opened the door for him. "You're hot, for a mom."

"Thanks. Masen. I love you too." I slipped my shoes one and took his arm.

"Let's do this," he handed me my bouquet and we headed out the door.

We walked to the threshold of the sanctuary and he kissed me on the cheek. The wedding march started to play and I saw everyone that mattered to Edward and I as we walked. Alice and Jasper, with their son Tucker. Rosalie and Emmett with their two boys. Our co-workers, our neighbors. His parents, my parents, our children.

Everyone was there to watch us on our big day. We finally arrived at the front of our small, country church. Masen turned to me again and gave me a kiss on my cheek.

"I love you," he whispered into my ear, before he went to sit down.

We went through the traditional introductions, and finally, at least for me, got to the most important part of the ceremony.

Our vows.

"True marriage is more than joining the bonds of marriage of two persons. In its right relation, it's the uniting of two souls already attuned to each other. When such a true bond already exists between man and woman, it is fitting that an outer acknowledgment be made. This acknowledgment is the prime object of this gathering and this ceremony. We are here to bear witness to the entry into the closer relationship of husband and wife of these beloved friends who are already one in spirit.

You are now taking into your care and keeping the happiness of the one person in all the world whom you love best. You are adding to your life not only the affection of each other, but also the companionship and blessing of a deep trust as well. You are agreeing to share strength, responsibilities, and to share love.

At the end of this ceremony, legally you will be husband and wife, but you still must decide each and every day that stretches before you, that you want to be married. Make such a decision and keep on making it, for the most important thing in life is to love and be loved.

May you always need one another, not so much to fill the emptiness as to help each other know your fullness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you embrace one another, but not encircle one another. May you succeed in all important ways with each other, and not fail in the little graces. Look for things to praise, often say 'I love you' and take no notice of small faults. May you have happiness, and may you find it in making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it in loving one another.

This ring by its shape is a symbol of the undying love that exists between you. The substance of which it is composed is a symbol of purity, which shall ever characterize your mind and hearts in all your relationships together."

Edward and I took turns putting rings on each other's fingers.

"You may now kiss the bride." I pressed my lips to Edward's lightly, knowing that later on tonight, we would be kissing much more.

"I know announce to you, for the first time, Edward and Bella Cullen and their children, Masen, Joseph, Abbigail, Anthony and Elisabeth." Masen stood up and led Anthony and Abbigail over to us, and Joseph leading Elisabeth. She had just learned how to walk. They led us down the aisle and we followed.

If you had told me three years ago that I would be divorced, and remarried to a man I thought I had lost forever, all while revealing my secret to the world, I would have told ya you were crazy. But the day Alice brought Edward into that house changed my life forever.

We fell in love.

We had a baby, Elisabeth Esme Cullen, born, rather dramatically, and weighing in at 4lbs. She had red hair like her daddy and blue eyes like her grandma Renee. And a temper like her brother. Maybe that's why they get along so well.

Edward adopted my children, Joseph, Abbigail and Anthony, and Masen came to live with us. Mike agreed wholeheartedly because it got him out of child support.

Joseph warmed up to Edward. He even called him dad now. They all called him dad now.

Esme and Carlisle, forgave me, over time, for keeping Masen from them and relocated to Virginia to be near their grandchildren. My mother also realized that the decision we made might not have been the best one, and that Mike truly was an asshole. My father still wasn't convinced that we should have custody of Masen. But Masen had made the decision on his own, and had spoken with such conviction, that the judge granted us custody. It was nice to not have the weight of that secret on my shoulders anymore. Nice to have my family together, and nice to have the love of my life back.

All in all, life was perfect again.

And the happily ever after that I thought I lost when Mike left me, was really a blessing in disguise, and the beginning of the rest of my life.

The End

A/N: Thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope that everyone has enjoyed this story. Thank you to my beta, Lila (**fuzzyltlwingedthing**) and my pre-reader, Carol.

The wedding vows are from the wedding of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. He introduced me to my first love, grunge music. May he rest in peace.

I will be starting another story, a continuation of a one-shot that I wrote a while back called "A Strange in the Night". This was the winner of the one-shot poll. The link is on my profile. That will also be a short story, about 20 chapters, and will be updated every two weeks (I hope). It's a little dark and twisty, and some people will probably not like the ending, but I'll leave it up to you.

I hope that you will join me on that journey as well.

Thank you for your patience and for all the reviews and follows.

Amberleigh


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